This morning took some time (we have plenty of it, right?) to review the open clinical trials in the WHO registry and ClincalTrial.gov for COVID treatments. Especially to determine if I needed to start taking my chloroquine we used to clean fish tanks. (Uh, that was a joke, that killed a man...) Considering our president tweeted that we will have the treatment soon and the amount of misinformation wrapped around the actual information, I dug in and found the details myself. Of course I did...
The open clinical trials are being tracked and I took a quick look at those that MIGHT result in either valid treatments or a vaccine. I put the curated potential treatments (uh, left out the Social Media impact?) into a Google Sheet with links to the Clinical Trial registry itself. The most important FACT is that there will not be an immunization soon. That is what is so misleading about the tweets and media hype. Clinical trials are complex and the general public would not have an appreciation for that complexity. So misleading tweets and hopeful media reporting without context are dangerous. Locally, we all appreciate the Hype around J&J putting so much effort into ramping up future production going into next year. It was good that it had such a positive impact on J&J stock price and now they have a way of filling up that manufacturing void driven by the opioid crisis blow back. But I digress.
There will be no clinically proven CURE nor a VACCINE anytime soon. Continuing to adhere to the CDC and WHO recommendation to prevent sickness are still the ONLY real solution. But watching the race does provide interesting insight into a somewhat frightening industry. Just remember, the Opioid crisis provided the general public a view into what happens when the clamor for a solution overshadows the scientific methods that ensure safe usage and application.
A final share of a sad fact that I uncovered during my morning research which was shocking and made me cancel my nightly ZOOM Happy Hours:
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