3 ms·
I'm with you, but the vaccine is like 32$ per dose, so 64$ total and completely blows out of the water all of those in their effectiveness. A lot of those drugs
by didibus 5y ago
I'm with you, but the vaccine is like 32$ per dose, so 64$ total and completely blows out of the water all of those in their effectiveness. A lot of those drugs also have quite the side effects, I don't think it's clear to me they are more/less safe than vaccines.
And then there's the issue that look how many choices there are? And it's still pretty unclear which of all of those is most efficient and how efficient exactly are they, so if you get Covid what do you do? Take 35 different cheap and maybe slightly effective drugs together in a big cocktail?
The other issue is they all mention requiring early treatment, but tests and other ways to detect Covid early aren't readily available or cheap, so do you now take this giant cocktail of mixed drugs every time you have a cold in case it turns out to be early onset Covid? Do you just take them all on a regular basis as a preventative?
My current personal assessment is that the vaccine still absolutely outshines all of these in every single dimension. I really wouldn't say we've found an actual cheap treatment that is truly effective and realistically easy to implement quite yet. While it does seem that we've found multiple vaccines that are.
P.S.: Side note, that website you link is the most random thing, they don't divulge anything about who they are, what's funding it, what's behind them, I only found an FAQ saying: Trust us we're a bunch of smart PHDs not looking for fame and remaining anonymous. Now I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they are truly well meaning expert in the know, but I also find it sketchy as hell, why not actually disclose who you are and how the operation is financed?
- s1artibartfast 5y ago>The other issue is they all mention requiring early treatment, but tests and other ways to detect Covid early aren't readily available or cheap, so do you now take this giant cocktail of mixed drugs every time you have a cold in case it turns out to be early onset Covid? Do you just take them all on a regular basis as a preventative? This is mostly a self imposed US problem. In many parts of Europe, you can get a rapid covid test in corner stores for 1-2 euros
- didibus 5y agoIs that their actual cost or are they subsidized? Also, I thought that even with symptoms the false positive rate was about 30% for rapid tests. If so, just that would possibly offset the effect of the best currently known treatment which based on the OPs website is fluvoxamine and the study here says a 32% reduction. But if about 30% of people who have Covid think they don't because of the false positive rate of the rapid test, they won't take the drug early enough and that could offset the effects. And there's all the other issues I brought up too. I still feel even with cheap rapid tests, I'm not sure those are effective and practical enough to bet on them over vaccines. I absolutely think it's great as a complimentary and multi-targeted strategy to fight Covid though. And in some countries without access to vaccines, if fluvoxamine is available, it definitely seems like it can help save some lives, and that's a great thing. It just seems far from a panacea, while vaccines honestly are feeling very close to be a panacea. I think what's more interesting to me with these, is that they can possibly lead to an understanding of the mechanisms at play that create or mitigate hospitalization, and maybe with that understanding we could pin point some new drugs that targets those more aggressively. Definitely hoping to see more research there.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoI wasn't making a value judgment on if tests+ treatment is superior to vaccination, just that it is an artificial limitation. I don't know if they are subsidized.