COVEXIT Newsletter #14
Greetings,
(click here for French) With a deadly disease such as COVID-19, and the havoc that characterized the pandemic response, especially in the first months, it’s hard to believe it, but a medical doctor out of California was able to achieve a perfect scorecard in treating his patients from COVID-19. No, it’s not a randomized placebo controlled trial vetted by the health authorities and published in a leading international medical journal. It’s the account of a medical doctor and his team, who did the right thing from the very beginning, acting upon the best available knowledge at the time. It’s a story of saving lives in a community that is not well off and with ethnic groups such that the expected odds would have been an especially high mortality. With the prevailing case fatality rates, well over 100 deaths would have been expected among the 1700 patients who were treated by Dr Tyson and his team. How many died from the disease? Zero. How many were hospitalized? Just one, and only very briefly. What did Dr Tyson and his team do right? We are pleased to present a detailed interview that explains how they did it. You will discover a story combining humility, willpower, resilience, and surprising anecdotes, such as Dr Tyson’s mother producing PPE for Dr Tyson and his staff, using HEPA filters material. You will learn in the interview that from day one, Dr Tyson and his team had already determined the treatment to be given to patients. What is essential in his success is to have treated patients early. This core success factor for treating COVID-19 is still being misunderstood, or simply rejected, by health authorities in most countries, that ask people infected with the virus to stay home, isolate, and wait for recovery without any treatment – an approach that works for some, but certainly not for all those infected, who are then usually transferred to hospital, where the odds for recovery are much lower. Early treatment, as recommended by Dr Zelenko, Prof. Raoult and others, since March, remains the key for successfully defeating this pandemic. Dr Tyson understood it, implemented it on a major scale, with outstanding results. Some complained the one hour interview is too long – well, with that depth of content, from the interviewer’s perspective, every minute of that interview counts. It’s actually more than an interview, it’s a practical guide for any doctor to successfully treat COVID-19 patients, based on a real, hands on, experience. So, you understood it, Dr Tyson’s interview is a must watch, so please watch it and share it abundantly.
Talking about early treatment guidelines, we already covered extensively, including in our interview with Professor Thomas Borody, that there are now several options for the early treatment of COVID-19. No, it’s not a question of hydroxychloroquine working or not working. We know it works, but only if combined with other drugs, and administered early. Early treatment actually also works with the two other therapeutic options, one with ivermectin, the other with favipiravir, that are discussed in a great presentation by Dr Peter McCullough, from the Baylor University Medical Center in Texas, which relies on his publication in the American Journal of Medicine. The presentation reiterates how early outpatient treatment is important, how important zinc is, and how additional medications can be prescribed to outpatients, before any hospitalization, in case the symptoms don’t disappear quickly.
It was already clear at the beginning of the pandemic, but it’s even clearer now: it’s mostly people who are aged in their 70s, 80s and beyond, who are the most at risk from the pandemic. If one wants to reduce mortality, these are the people who need to be taken care of in priority. But while this is widely acknowledged, there are very few instances where this is followed by concrete, effective, targeted actions. Many countries rely on non-therapeutic interventions, such as strict isolation of the elderly in nursing homes, reduced visits, including by the staff, etc. Such measures are not only very harsh on the day to day life of these aged people, but are already proving to be ineffective, with the resurgence of the pandemic in many nursing homes – and this may just be the beginning in Canada, the US and elsewhere. The major missing element is early treatment. Another missing element is prophylaxis. We have an article and an opinion that focus just on that. Yes, early treatment protocols, such as the one recommended by Professor Borody, and that is included in the presentation by Dr McCullough, can be used to the benefit of aged people who have COVID-19, either home or in a nursing home. The article and opinion argue that this would be the single most effective approach to reduce mortality from COVID-19, by targeting those who are the most at risks, with thoroughly safe, cheap and easy to administer therapies. To this day, many jurisdictions, including France and other European Countries, Canada, and many States in the US, are denying such straightforward therapeutic approach for COVID-19. One wonders why, but it’s the sad state of affairs when it comes to the therapeutic response to COVID-19, which is mostly dominated by information about novel hospital level treatments, or vaccines development, while in reality, at least in the short and medium run, early outpatient treatment, targeting the initial viral phase of the disease, is by far the most effective approach to reduce the likelihood of severe forms of the disease, long term effects, and mortality.
Finally, we also have an article about Belgium – the country with the highest level of deaths per capita from COVID-19 – where mostly old people died from the disease. In three different open letters, medical doctors voice their discontent regarding the governmental response to the crisis. It’s an interesting reading, especially in light of the fact that, in many countries, medical doctors have remained silent, even when in disagreement with the authorities.
Best regards,
Jean-Pierre Kiekens
