Coronavirus global pandemic

MoodyBlues said:

... even less is known about COVID-19 in non-human animals than human animals.

Click to expand...

Not entirely true, Moody. That "secret government lab" in China where the Coronavirus was "engineered as a bio weapon" is actually a research facility specifically for the study of natural pathogens. Read up.

It worries me that so much misinformation and speculation is taken for fact, or at least used to justify behavior that goes against medical recommendations. Or worse, used for a political or profitable agenda.

The science indicates that the virus originated in bats or pangolins. The original infection, or "patient zero" is still only speculative with how it transferred. However, like other Coronavirus infections, it's not spread by animals to humans. If that were the case, we would have seen hotpsots primarily where humans and animals interact rather than in areas where humans interact primarily with other humans. I also beleive that testing isn't 100% perfect and that false positives can be triggered by many factors, especially when we are rushing the tests and sloppy collection procedures are being used.

The problem is that when one dog or one tiger gets a positive result (true or false) it becomes the next wild speculation for the media and public to latch onto. We should now kill all bats, dogs and tigers? I'm sure that if you ask, there would be advocates regardless of the science.

Assuming there are species that can be cross-infected, the infection vectors would have to be the same. Droplets from an active infection or surface contact with viable viruses (virii?). Since non-domestic animals are not practicing any social distancing and domesticated and farm animals are concentrated in groups exposed to humans, if there was the possibility of cross-infection, we'd see COVID-19 rampant in those populations by now. That's not happening, unlike the Swine or avian flu's that immediately demonstrated the infection vector between species.

I think we are too ready to buy into the "anything's possible" philosophy to demonstrate open-mindedness. Being open minded should be about discovery and study of the unknown rather than accepting wild theories as explanation.

MoodyBlues said:

A physician here in LA is having some success with the much-touted malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine:

"Dr. Anthony Cardillo said he has seen very promising results when prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc for the most severely-ill COVID-19 patients.

'Every patient I've prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free,' Cardillo told Eyewitness News. 'So clinically I am seeing a resolution.'"

It's very important to note that it only works when combined with zinc, not alone as certain public figures keep saying:

"He said he has found it only works if combined with zinc. The drug, he said, opens a channel for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication."

Looks good!

Click to expand...

The original paper that identified that drug for use in COVID-19 treatment has drawn some criticism of failing to meet proper standards for a clinical trial, so I would perhaps take it with a pinch of salt as well as zinc.

And the consequences of this type of bandwagon reporting has led to the malaria patients who depend on Hydroxychloroquine for life having difficulty getting it because of inappropriate prescriptions, illegal injections and hoarding.