Steve, I'll have a crack, but its a pretty one-side conversation. You make statements posed as questions and yet don't ever seem to comment on the responses. Like, are you having your questions answered and having information voids filled?
Anyway.
"Would it be of any relevance to statistically break out those who died directly from Covid-19 and those who happened to have contracted the virus and the infection was the proverbial “straw that broke the camels back”?"
Statistics are used to answer a question. If I can be so bold, is your question : how many people with no co-morbidities died from COVID-19 vs how many people with multiple pre-existing conditions?
That is a fair enough question. I don't know. But it is not very hard to guess. Sick people die from just about anything more frequently than well people.
Your premise that COVID-19 was the "straw that broke the camels's back" is one of those couched questions where you are seeking confirmation bias at the get go. Early on someone in here made a claim (their claim, from TX, not mine) that car crash victims - dead ones - who tested positive were being added to the tally. Of course they were. They were necessarily added to the tally of COVID-19 positive, but not to the COVID-19 deaths. For contact tracing if nothing else.
Someone with heart disease, liver disease, lung disease and diabetes who was wandering about buying TP and canned goods who got sick acutely with COVID-19 and spent their last days face down on a ventilator with a half a dozen tubes coming in or out of them... that's who you're asking about? If someone really, truly wanted to know whether that last little wafer, that last little morsel that snuffed out their candle was COVID-19 or not is probably just a little too busy trying to save the life of the next patient being log-rolled off the gurney right now.
Those statistics will just have to wait.
So the relevance to you? Whether you are well and have no co-morbidities or if you are chronically sick and take a hundred tablets a day is already known. My advice is still to stop touching people, wash your hands, wear a mask if your circumstances dictate it and don't become a statistic.
'Hy-DROx-ee, I like to call it. Maybe its a game changer, maybe its not. Could work, can't hurt'. I read someone say something like that recently.
Firstly I'll disregard your questions about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the like. This is a motorbike forum, how can anyone here answer that question? Call Zuckerberg.
But discussion of hydroxychloroquine is a great thing to discuss. Its a shame that it has been spruiked by a bleach guzzling, lightbulb swallower because that has clouded the issue.
The medical and pharmaceutical fraternity welcome new medications or new uses for old medications, but unlike saying 'try it, it can't hurt', they are required to make some efforts to make sure that it doesn't hurt. Sound fair?
Now, full confession, as a doctor I prescribe medications. Go get any drug packet from your bathroom cabinet - I'll wait. Read the back and you may freak out at all of the problems and 'hurt' it may cause. But on balance and with or without alternatives those drugs still get used and generally work and generally don't 'hurt' too much.
Just because someone takes a tablet and doesn't get 'hurt' doesn't mean it's good idea to take it. To say a drug is efficacious and has a tolerable adverse reaction profile takes a lot of case-controlled research, a lot of test subjects, a lot of people and usually a lot of time. The highest standard is called Level 1 evidence. It is very heartening that some learned medicos, patients and Costa Rica are saying that it helps. Helps them or helps their patients. Great. That is anecdotal or expert best-guess Level 4,5,6,or 7 evidence depending on the evidence pyramid you use.
So until the weight of numbers clearly show a benefit then the medical authorities (government and policy maker level) they are held by law to NOT say 'give it a try, might work, might not, can't hurt'. The 'research' process is happening in many places around the world in many smaller trials to help find the answer.
I do understand that time is of the essence with COVID-19.
Talk to your doctor, try to inform yourself as much as possible and seek original medical papers rather than Twits/YouTube ranters. Oh, and stop touching people avoid coughing and coughers, keep away from snot and wash your hands lots. Masks or no masks, follow the advice of your local health authorities.
