Covid Observational Studies
Author of Two Retracted COVID-19 Studies Once Bemoaned Misconduct
The Lancet retracted a controversial “observational study” on the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without antibiotics or zinc in the treatment of COVID-19. The retraction came after scientists, doctors, etc. raised questions about the data used to draw the the study’s conclusions. The authors were not able to access and vouch for the underlying data, which came from the company Surgisphere. The New England Journal of Medicine also retracted a similar paper that drew on the same Surgisphere’s proprietary database of global hospital medical records. This action came after it had asked the authors to provide evidence that the data was reliable.
Surgisphere’s CEO, coauthored both papers.
What appears to have happened is Surgisphere data-mined the data from a multiple hospital data bases which lead to its findings. Data mining is a common process used to extract usable data from a larger set of any raw data.
To get to the source and use of the data in the observational study, The Lancet‘s editor-in-chief posted on May 28 an open letter to the authors citing 10 concerns with it. Identifying themselves (letter’s authors) as “clinicians, medical researchers, statisticians, and ethicists from across the world; the signatories” claim the researchers failed to sufficiently identify factors which may have influenced their results such as disease severity, dosage used, lack of ethics review, and errors in the underlying database. This is nothing that has not been pointed out before and ignored by others touting other potential drugs.
Interesting enough, Surgisphere’s CEO and a coauthor of the study had written an earlier publication warning against research misconduct .
One doctor had noted the speed of which both the Lancet and the NEJM publications had been submitted.
Dr. Jimmy Chang: “Mandeep Mehra, Sapan Desai, Amit Patel, same authors. Surgisphere database (same database? authentic?), 1 study in NEJM (1 May 2020) and 1 study in Lancet (22 May 2020), within very short time. Lightning speed publications.
Very creative ways of doing dirty things.”
I have found Dr. Chang comments in other articles discussing the efficacy of HCQ + Zinc. This particular statement can be found in the comments section (link above – Dr. Jimmy Chang) as listed as number “5.”
The Lancet and NEJM articles on the two studies have been retracted by both publications due to the unwillingness of Surgishere to allow their data to be reviewed. Due to both the Lancet and NEJM articles taken seriously, studies on HCL have halted and its use banned. Even so, reports showed the proper use of HCQ within two weeks of Covid detection (and not hospitalization), at a lesser dosage than what was used in studies, and in conjunction with Zinc have shown an ability to block Covid from replicating. As read; after a certain period of time after contracting Covid, HCL dosage and Zinc loses much of its effectiveness on Covid if it has already replicated.
Some Detail
HCQ + Zinc is not a cure and neither is Gilead’s drug Remdesivir which also has issues the same as HCQ with regard to usage and effects from its use. Gilead Science also has the Pro-drug (the body converts it into triphosphate) GS-441524 which is similar to Remdesivir, is easier to manufacture (synthesize), and is made in three steps as compared to the 7-step process for Remdesivir. HCQ is a decades old drug and is readily available as opposed to Gilead having to ramp up manufacturing to meet a global growing.
There is a history to Remdesivir also. It was developed to be used in the treatment of Hepatitis C and did not have the impact necessary to be classified as effective. It was repurposed in the treatment of Ebola and was found to less effective than monoclonal antibody treatments; however, Remdesivir does exhibit antiviral activity hence the use in treating Covid.
Remdesivir was recently approved as an orphan drug and later changed back to a normal drug status even though the approval came before Covid had reached 200,000 cases the limit for orphan drug status. It is thought their profits will be even higher with the Covid pandemic. Pricing for Remdesivir is still an issue when compared to the lower HCQ’s pricing. Gilead Sciences had more than $22 billion of revenue in 2019 and stands to make money from Remdesivir for many years to come when FDA approved.
Former Gilead Vice President Joseph Grogan sits on a Vice President Pence led 16 person task force of which 4 members have scientific skills. His position on the task force as well as the former Lilly’s employee “We can’t control the price” – Alex Azar’s presents a conflict in favor of Gilead Sciences and other drug companies. Joseph Grogan was a lobbyist for Gilead Sciences before he joined the Trump administration as director of the Domestic Policy Council leading the Drug Pricing and Innovation Work Group.
The timing of the usage of either of these drugs is extremely important with regard to the impact on replication of Covid in the body. If not used early on and before hospitalization, the impact of either is limited with Covid (reduce viral load). The immune system whose function is to fight infections over reacts and eventually leads to the “death of the patient from over-activation of white blood cells, which release too – great amounts of cytokines – inflammation – stimulating molecules – into the blood” which impacts the organs of the body. HQC alone or with other elements has been used too late in the process of treating Covid and preventing replication which causes the body to fight back with white cells.
I had hoped by now others would have written on the issues with the Lancet and NEJM studies which were touted extensively. Then there are the issues surrounding further studies of HCQ. And yes, there are issues if the dose is too great initially or over a period of time, if it is used by itself without the addition of Zinc, etc., and if it is used too late in the process of treating Covid as it has already replicated. The commentary on the two flawed studies was not forth coming, hence my comments.
Meanwhile, India has approved the use of hydroxychloroquine as a preventive medication for asymptomatic healthcare workers working in non-COVID-19 hospitals, frontline staff on surveillance duty in containment zones and paramilitary/police personnel involved in coronavirus infection related activities. Like South Korea, India is a country far away, not white, and not as cultured as we are.
A last comment, one has to wonder if Trump tested positive as detected by a doctor and was prescribed HCQ to prevent replication? We are only getting part of the story if true.
Important and excellent.
Remdesivir is about as useful as Tamiflu, so it’s useful, but that’s about it. HCQ might be useful, but it sure isn’t showing it whenever someone tries to measure its effect. It was prescribed off label for a lot of patients in NYC (and probably elsewhere) during the peak of the crisis, but those patients were already being hospitalized, and it didn’t seem to help much if at all. The medical teams were willing to try anything and were desperate for a morale booster.
There have been a number of trials, as opposed to retrospective studies, and none of them have shown HCQ to be useful in treating COVID-19. The most recent I know of was the RECOVERY study in England comparing a bunch of treatments that showed no HCQ effect for hospitalized patients. There was also a U Minn study that showed no prophylactic effect versus a placebo. Surely some controlled study should find something.
HCQ seems a lot like Vitamin C back in the day when Linus Pauling was pushing it for preventing and ameliorating the common cold. There were people who were willing to swear in court that they had fewer and milder colds thanks to large doses of C. There are two important differences. HCQ is more dangerous than Vitamin C, and HCQ has to be prescribed by a medical professional while C is available OTC.
Kalesburg:
HCQ when prescribed should be prescribed early on when Covid is first detected and well before hospitalization. The same is true for Remdesivir. The most either will do in the latter stages is decrease the viral load which by that time is too late. In conjunction with zinc, it reacts as an Ionophore allowing Zinc ions into the cell which links to the Covid RNA (I have to look again). We do have some people with greater knowledge than I or Robert who can talk on the topic.
For reasons I stated on the two observational studies and about Gilead Sciences are indications of what is really occurring. I wish Trump had not said a word. In the VA study, HCQ was administered in late stages of Covid whwn replication had already had a foot hold. I am not a doctor. All I did was manufacture pharma and hospital supplies.
A couple of places to read more. Anecdotal Info from southern France being reported: https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/covid-19/
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/12/South-Korea-experts-recommend-anti-HIV-anti-malaria-drugs-for-COVID-19/6961584012321/
This one goes on for months: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_a_combo_of_chloroquine_and_Zinc_a_cure_for_coronavirus
300 comments in this article from medical people (Dr. Chang included) for you to read: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927033
Until we get the study of HCQ plus zinc, we will not know and the rejections will still be in command.
Good Morning Kaleberg:
You have provoked a well – written response from a first time commenter. I will let you decide on this person’s commentary.
Having worked with and for South Koreans, I have found them to be intelligent, precise, and not prone to making deliberately false proclamations. They used HCQ in conjunction with other drugs, etc. and had no problem with it other than what was already known from decades of use which is well documented. I find the argument of “its danger” to be disingenuous as it is well known there is a limit to how much should be prescribed on a daily basis. That you need a prescription for it the same as other drugs (including Remdesivir) is an “of course” for me. I do not find this to be unusual the same as I would not find a defined dosage unusual.
India has approved the use of HCQ for its and since you will not go to the link I posted, I will bring the information here:
The great number of trials for HQC you allude to have had their flaws the same as what the trial(s) hurriedly published by the Lancet and the NEJM. The VA used older vets, hospitalized vets, and high dosage; a sure precursor to failure. By itself HCQ is less of a preventative than if used with zinc or an antibiotic or? Other than rehashing the well documented dangers and a misuse of dosage, is there something new to be added?
Additional info from the same report:
But then none of this is info. from the US or Europe.
Vit d helps but that is because in most people, it is low. But most people outside some vegans get enough vitamins except for k2 which is important in helping d into the brain and immune system(I would supplement with Mk7 as its hard to much of it nowadays and eat animal organs for Mk4, which is brain food and made when mk7/k1 process it in the liver).
BS:
I appreciate the comment. Zinc is also in short supply in the human body.
June 12, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 2,090,499)
Deaths ( 116,063)
UK
Cases ( 291,409)
Deaths ( 41,279)
Canada
Cases ( 97,530)
Deaths ( 7,994)
Sweden
Cases ( 49,684)
Deaths ( 4,854)
June 12, 2020
Coronavirus (Deaths per million)
Belgium ( 832)
UK ( 608)
Spain ( 581)
Italy ( 565)
Sweden ( 481)
France ( 450)
Netherlands ( 353)
US ( 351)
Ireland ( 345)
Switzerland ( 224)
Canada ( 212)
Luxembourg ( 176)
Portugal ( 147)
Germany ( 106)
Denmark ( 102)
Austria ( 75)
Finland ( 59)
Norway ( 45)
Greece ( 18)
Notice that the death rate for coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom is running above a shockingly severe 14%:
June 12, 2020
Coronavirus
UK
Cases ( 292,950)
Deaths ( 41,481)
Paul Krugman @paulkrugman
As a number of people have pointed out, talk of a “second wave” of Covid-19 misses the point that the first wave never ended; this biases conversation by making it seem as if staying at the current death rate would be OK. Is this projection acceptable? 1/
https://covid19-projections.com/#current-us-projections…
2:11 PM · Jun 12, 2020
Right now, the daily death toll is around 3X higher than on the worst day of the Tet offensive in the Vietnam War; twice as many Americans dead already as in the whole of that war, and we’re on track to double that total 2/
So even if we don’t have another spike like what happened in April, this is a disaster of the first magnitude 3/
June 12, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 2,105,820)
Deaths ( 116,527)
UK
Cases ( 292,950)
Deaths ( 41,481)
Canada
Cases ( 97,893)
Deaths ( 8,048)
Sweden
Cases ( 49,684)
Deaths ( 4,854)
China
Cases ( 83,064)
Deaths ( 4,634)
Kaleberg:
Re vitamin C, Pauling, and covid.
People should know that the proper use of vitamin C is a tested and verified safe, cheap and effective treatment, and prophylactic, against covid-19 — see orthomolecular d ot o r g (click on ‘Library’ and then ‘News Releases’ and read the editions from about February of 2020 on forward)
A lot of this is based on Nobel laureate Linus Pauling’s pioneering work. HOWEVER….. everyone should keep the following in mind, especially now with the corona scamdemic going on: there are many bogus voices around who strive to distract the public from (1) the value of vitamin C therapy and (2) the fact that Pauling’s VALID work with vitamin C supplementation has been “falsified” by data distortions and lies, and he as a person (a double Nobel laureate) has been slandered as some deluded idiot by the criminal medical establishment and its countless quackwatch shills, lackeys, ignoramuses, and trolls for decades and it continues today — search for the scholarly report “2 Big Lies: No Vitamin Benefits & Supplements Are Very Dangerous” by Rolf Hefti (a published author of the Orthomolecular Medicine News organization). The same corrupt criminal people (and their uninformed followers) are behind the organized suppression, lies, and half-truths spread about the value of vitamin C therapy against covid-19 — see orthomolecular d ot o r g
But you can’t discredit the facts with lies. That only exposes and discredits the liars (see citations above).
The fact that we are dealing with a VERY CRIMINAL OFFICIAL POWER STRUCTURE (the Deep State, governments, WHO, official corporate medicine, CDC/Fauci, the mainstream media, paid off scientists, Bill Gates, etc) that constantly hoodwinks the unsuspecting public with MANY BIG LIES can easily be recognized by anyone with two working brain cells when reading this one sentence by a former US government official, Paul Craig Roberts, Ph.D., in his article ‘The Cost of Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Vaccine Will Be Paid in Lives and in Billions of Dollars’:
“A corrupt establishment and media that can sell us 9/11, Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Iranian nukes, Assad’s use of chemical weapons, a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russiagate and a large number of other lies can also sell us on locking up a successful treatment in the closet while we await a vaccine.”
or from another article of his:
“In “freedom and democracy” America there is only official truth, and it is a lie. […]. […] when I told the truth that Russiagate was a hoax, which it has proved to be, an anonymous website, possibly a CIA or NATO operation called “PropOrNot,” included this website among its fake list of 200 “Russian agents/dupes.” The Washington Post, a believed long-time CIA asset, hyped the PropOrNot revelation as if it were the truth. With “Russiagate” in full hype, the purpose was to scare readers away from those of us who were exposing the hoax. […]. The way those with agendas control the explanations is by shouting down those who provide objective accounts. Social media is part of the censorship. Explanations out of step with official ones are labeled “abusive,” and in “violation of community standards.” In other words, truth is unacceptble. […]. Everyone who uses social media is by their use supporting censorship. Facebook imposes fascist censorship in order to protect official explanations. The presstitutes and universities do the same. In America truth has lost its value. […]. Even a public health threat like coronavirus is politicized. […]. If you are Big Pharma, NIH, CDC, or the research professionals dependent on grants from these sources, you want a vaccine, not a cure. This means a long wait, assuming an effective and safe vaccine is possible. […]. The hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), zinc, and intravenous vitamin C treatments, which have proved to be effective, are badmouthed by Big Pharma and its minions. In other words, the profit agenda over-rides health care and the saving of lives. […]. It is all about money. There are no profits for Big Pharma or a chance for patents for Dr. Fauci unless inexpensive HCQ, zinc, and Vitamin C can be sidelined.”
Also, if nothing else, watch this MUST-SEE documentary: is gd/uQH5Lb
And if you still do not think that covid-19 is a planned scamdemic ponder this statement by the American investigative reporter Jon Rappoport:
“Since planes fly back and forth, and since all sorts of Westerners travel to the rainforests, why haven’t we seen whole native tribes wiped out by viruses from the deep dark streets of Brooklyn? It would even seem that viruses, common in, say, Norway, would cause trouble in Oregon. Why does it have to be “viruses from jungles?” Or other faraway places like China? […]. […] is it possible that jungles and Africa and China are typically chosen for virus fairy tales because, in the minds of many Westerners, they satisfy a requirement of “strange,” “different,” “primitive,” and so on? We’re talking theater here—and when you stage a propaganda play (fiction), you want to tap into the reflex instincts of the audience. The Hartford Virus, the Des Moines Virus, the Vancouver Virus just don’t fit the bill. Because they can’t drive up the fear that jungles or Africa or China can. […]. We NEVER hear killer virus stories about germs traveling from Europe and America to Asia and Africa. Why not? Because such a story won’t sell. It won’t bite. This is called a clue. It tells you that virus-stories are shaped and managed and written and managed and broadcast according to a plan that has nothing to do with actual disease.”
But having true knowledge like that is not enough in itself, YOUR BEHAVIOR must reflect the implications of that knowledge…. ESPECIALLY NOW IN THE FACE OF THIS MASSIVE EVIL SCAM. As the American social critic Paul Rosenberg pointed out in his article ‘Nothing Changes As Long As You Obey’:
“I hear the same complaints about politicians that you do. And while I understand them, the fact is that complaining accomplishes almost nothing. And there is a very simple reason why complaining has no real effect: BECAUSE THE COMPLAINERS KEEP RIGHT ON OBEYING. As long as you obey, the things you complain about will keep on happening.”
And Edmund Burke said:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.”
Welcome to AB
A long comment. I stop short of the accusations you make in it. I did add the link to the place you wish others to read.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-06-13/COVID-19-threatens-entire-nervous-system-study-RhsRjlSiyY/index.html
June 13, 2020
COVID-19 threatens entire nervous system: study
A review of the neurological symptoms of COVID-19 patients in current scientific literature reveals the disease poses a threat to the entire nervous system, said a Northwestern Medicine study posted on the website of Northwestern University (NU) on Thursday.
About half of hospitalized patients have neurological manifestations of COVID-19, which include headaches, dizziness, decreased alertness, difficulty concentrating, disorders of smell and taste, seizures, strokes, weakness and muscle pain.
The disease may affect the entire nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord and nerves as well as the muscles. As the disease may affect multiple organs, such as lung, kidney and heart, the brain may also suffer from lack of oxygenation or from clotting disorders that may lead to ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes.
Moreover, the virus may cause direct infection of the brain and meninges. The reaction of the immune system to the infection may cause inflammation that can damage the brain and nerves.
“It’s important for the general public and physicians to be aware of this, because a SARS-COV-2 infection may present with neurologic symptoms initially, before any fever, cough or respiratory problems occur,” said lead author Igor Koralnik, Northwestern Medicine chief of neuro-infectious diseases and global neurology and a professor of neurology at NU Feinberg School of Medicine.
Koralnik and colleagues have formed a Neuro-COVID research team and started a retrospective analysis of all COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Northwestern Medicine to determine the frequency and type of neurological complications, as well as response to treatment.
The study was published * this week in Annals of Neurology.
Northwestern Medicine is the collaboration between Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, which includes research, teaching and patient care.
* https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.25807
anne:
This gets back to my point I believe here and if not, elsewhere. Contracting Covid is as dangerous as dying from it as there are other issues resulting from Covid which have lifetime ramifications. This is something the younger set are blowing off in the belief Covid will not cause them to die. Instead, it will destroy your life as one may know it which is a point the young ignore as they wander around thinking this is an old – man’s disease for which they must contend.
You are reading all of the stuff I read. Besides posting articles, I am hoping you can expound upon this too.