3 ms·

Would you mind to share which antibody treatment were you able to get for your father? I would be useful for the rest of us if we ever find ourselves in this si

Would you mind to share which antibody treatment were you able to get for your father? I would be useful for the rest of us if we ever find ourselves in this situation again.

dougmwne 5y ago
It was the Monoclonal antibody treatment that is part of the official NIH treatment recommendations. There are a few formulations with different brand names, but the recommendation is to take whatever is first available and there is not published evidence of one being better than the others. I don't even know which he was given and does not matter at this point. The infusion lasted several hours at our local hospital and required a positive Covid test and needed to be ordered by a doctor stating that there were enough comorbidities to justify the treatment, the went through a lottery weighed on risk factors, then an appointment was scheduled. It is free to the patient but very expensive to taxpayers. It needs to be given as soon as possible after symptom onset to have the greatest effect. The odd thing is that you have to start pushing strongly on the paperwork to get this fairly invasive treatment when you still feel perfectly well in order to get it in time. You have to act quickly purely on your risk factors and not on how you are feeling. That's why this pill has so much potential. It could be handed out immediately after a positive test and prescription and is easy enough that it becomes "why not" instead of "why". Of course this is a very new drug, but for certain high risk people it may make a ton of sense.
EricE 5y ago
There are actually a multitude of treatments beyond waiting for thing to get bad enough that you need to go to the hospital: https://aapsonline.org/covidpatientguide/ https://aapsonline.org/covidpatientguide/ This is also worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHi3lX3oGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHi3lX3oGM
- dougmwne 5y ago
  To anyone seeing this link please beware. The linked PDF recommends several treatments that have insufficient evidence of being safe or effective, such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. The only pre-hospitalization treatment currently recommend by the NIH with strong evidence is Monoclonal antibodies. Other previously recommended treatments such as steroids and Remdesivir have weak or conflicting evidence. Steroids are still recommended in a hospital setting. I'm sure many of us are familiar with sources of statical bias and issues such as multiple testing error. These things apply to clinical trials just as much as email subject line testing. That is why it is important to focus care on treatments that have strong evidence and continuing to study new treatments with insufficient evidence. Politics should not determine treatment, evidence should. Please see the NIH pages on current covid care recommendations, which also include pages on treatments with insufficient evidence, their theorized mechanism and the state of research. https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/management/clinical-management/clinical-management-summary/ https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/management/cl...
- blacksqr 5y ago
  Document link goes to AAPS web site. Wikipedia: "The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a politically conservative non-profit association that promotes medical disinformation, such as HIV/AIDS denialism, the abortion-breast cancer hypothesis, vaccine and autism connections, and homosexuality reducing life expectancy."
  - dougmwne 5y ago
    That's terrifying. The website looks completely legit at first glance and my first clue that something was off was the Ivermectin. I had a bunch of cognitive dissonance trying to figure out why this very legit association of doctors was publishing crap. If I had less information about current standard of care they would have got me. How putrid.

Would you mind to share which antibody treatment were you able to get for your father? I would be useful for the rest of us if we ever find ourselves in this situation again.

dougmwne 5y ago

It was the Monoclonal antibody treatment that is part of the official NIH treatment recommendations. There are a few formulations with different brand names, but the recommendation is to take whatever is first available and there is not published evidence of one being better than the others. I don't even know which he was given and does not matter at this point. The infusion lasted several hours at our local hospital and required a positive Covid test and needed to be ordered by a doctor stating that there were enough comorbidities to justify the treatment, the went through a lottery weighed on risk factors, then an appointment was scheduled. It is free to the patient but very expensive to taxpayers. It needs to be given as soon as possible after symptom onset to have the greatest effect. The odd thing is that you have to start pushing strongly on the paperwork to get this fairly invasive treatment when you still feel perfectly well in order to get it in time. You have to act quickly purely on your risk factors and not on how you are feeling. That's why this pill has so much potential. It could be handed out immediately after a positive test and prescription and is easy enough that it becomes "why not" instead of "why". Of course this is a very new drug, but for certain high risk people it may make a ton of sense.

EricE 5y ago

There are actually a multitude of treatments beyond waiting for thing to get bad enough that you need to go to the hospital: https://aapsonline.org/covidpatientguide/ https://aapsonline.org/covidpatientguide/ This is also worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHi3lX3oGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHi3lX3oGM

dougmwne 5y ago
To anyone seeing this link please beware. The linked PDF recommends several treatments that have insufficient evidence of being safe or effective, such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. The only pre-hospitalization treatment currently recommend by the NIH with strong evidence is Monoclonal antibodies. Other previously recommended treatments such as steroids and Remdesivir have weak or conflicting evidence. Steroids are still recommended in a hospital setting. I'm sure many of us are familiar with sources of statical bias and issues such as multiple testing error. These things apply to clinical trials just as much as email subject line testing. That is why it is important to focus care on treatments that have strong evidence and continuing to study new treatments with insufficient evidence. Politics should not determine treatment, evidence should. Please see the NIH pages on current covid care recommendations, which also include pages on treatments with insufficient evidence, their theorized mechanism and the state of research. https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/management/clinical-management/clinical-management-summary/ https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/management/cl...
blacksqr 5y ago
Document link goes to AAPS web site. Wikipedia: "The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a politically conservative non-profit association that promotes medical disinformation, such as HIV/AIDS denialism, the abortion-breast cancer hypothesis, vaccine and autism connections, and homosexuality reducing life expectancy."
- dougmwne 5y ago
  That's terrifying. The website looks completely legit at first glance and my first clue that something was off was the Ivermectin. I had a bunch of cognitive dissonance trying to figure out why this very legit association of doctors was publishing crap. If I had less information about current standard of care they would have got me. How putrid.