30 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – December 3 2020”

  1. You’ve undoubtedly heard of Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment for Covid-19. It was touted by Trump. Well, this is a biologic treatment, a large as opposed to small molecule. There are many such products on the market for cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other illnesses. Humira, for example; Herceptin is another; Remicade another. Some like Remicade and Herceptin are off patent. There’s now a pathway for cheaper versions called biosimilars. They’re taking off now. I wrote about this. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2020/12/03/will-2021-be-another-break-through-year-for-biosimilars/

    1. Based on the WH Task Force history to date, I hope Baker ignores them. We don’t need to shutdown, only as a very last resort.

      1. Agree. It’s a balancing act. But, if hospitalizations remain on their current trajectory we’ll be in trouble by Christmas, and we’ll have to at least institute a partial lockdown. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point.

        1. I’m afraid I do not agree. I understand the reluctance to roll back. Businesses are struggling. But if they don’t have customers due to illness or death, they will struggle longer.

          Baker is back to doing what he did the first time he ran…..which is why I didn’t vote for him that time. I don’t believe we can wait for Christmas or even a week. We are in trouble and are on a path of no return

          I notice he isn’t saying a word about schools. He knows he is wrong. It is now spreading in a few schools.

          1. We have no business opening indoor performance venues and close contact recreational area. Good grief the man said himself youth sports are shown to have creates clusters.

  2. I do know Stelera, John. It’s used for autoimmune disorders like psoriatic arthritis. It is indeed a monoclonal antibody, so a biologic or large molecule. It’s still on patent, so biosimilars aren’t yet available for this products.

    And to answer Philip’s question, Regeneron’s Covid-19 treatment is patented, so no biosimilars for a while.

    Long Covid sufferers may, however, benefit from a number of relatively cheap generic products, such as dexamethasone. I don’t know if it’s been used for long haulers with moderate to severe symptoms.

  3. I thought I just heard on the radio that there could already be distribution issues with the vaccine. I hope it was just a rumor.

    Joshua, have you heard anything like that today?

  4. Doing some extrapolating here, but from what I can gauge we are heading for 200,000 new cases (record), 102,000 hospitalized patients (record), and 3,000 deaths (record).

    Surprise, surprise (not!), Pfizer has cut its projections of how many doses it can deliver of its vaccine in December/January by 50%. I expect that number to increase, as manufacturing and storage are bound to encounter difficulties. And, the vaccine hasn’t been approved yet, so vaccination itself cannot begin for at least another 10 days.

  5. Three times the number of Americans have died of Covid-19 in November than of the flu during all of 2018.

  6. John, I’m not a doctor, but I know that Remicade did wonders for my mother’s ulcerative colitis. UC and Crohn’s are related autoimmune disorders.

  7. President Elect Biden will mandate mask wearing for the entire nation for the first 100 days of his presidency.

      1. The relief package is not coming until orange man is out of office . The new president will have one in place I bet in no time .

        1. I believe that “orange man” is actually in favor of the upcoming relief package. It’s now a matter of the Republican Congress and especially Mitch McConnell to be on board.

  8. Helen Branswell writes for Stat. She’s excellent. She just wrote a piece that drives the point home that having a vaccine is one thing, vaccinating people is another. https://twitter.com/HelenBranswell/status/1334156659959148550

    The Trump Administration has helped with Operation Warp Speed on the vaccine front, but it has largely left distribution and vaccination prioritization to other federal agencies – who sometimes collaborate, and sometimes don’t – and states. Vaccination is grossly underfunded. I’ll reiterate, I like our federal system, but NOT in a pandemic. You need one system of distribution and prioritization that applies across the board. This is not about state preferences or idiosyncrasies, for goodness sake. Rhode Island shouldn’t have a different distribution and prioritization plan from the one Massachusetts and Connecticut are implementing.

  9. Massachusetts cases are now rising at an alarming rate, positivity as well. Governor will need to act. I must say I’m disappointed at the lack of distancing and masking at construction sites, and the lack of distancing in stores. Messaging needs to make this clear. We all need to mask AND distance. Doing just one thing isn’t sufficient. As I said yesterday, a guy at CVS was breathing down my neck. I asked him to back up and he refused. Store clerk didn’t say anything. This must change.

    The federal government’s messaging is mostly the “help is on the way” phrase, referring to vaccines, which Pence repeats over and over and over again. His message should be, “folks, vaccines are coming, but we still need to do a lot more to mitigate spread in the coming months … do x, y, and z, and do it now and don’t stop doing it until we give the all clear sign, and that may not be until the spring or summer of 2021.”

  10. John, I’m sorry to hear about your wife’s reaction to Remicade. It can cause fevers and a bad reaction.

    Good luck finding the right medicine for her.

  11. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/health/coronavirus-testing-labs-workers.html?fbclid=IwAR1-930YDaJHTNpv5UQ_WPD3J90TtG5xqHuW-xkvkKRdJ8jRUb-qpdY9pS8
    People are talking about the nurses and Doctors but are not talking about the actual people charged with the testing, the labs. As many on here already know my Dad works at MGH and he is an executive director of the Blood and Specimen lab. He has 14 meetings a week just about Covid. My Dad and his staff is being run into the ground by doctors who have no respect and nurses. I am happy that his boss and his bosses boss has realized what my Dad and his staff is going through and is allowing them to hire temporary workers through bullfinch temps ( basically a branch of the hospital that fills empty spots temporarily) so they can monitor the person for a month and decide if they are going to keep them or let them go. While also reducing the normal staff time at the Covid testing areas. So finally some respect for them but there needs to be an understanding of everyone that works at the hospital not just the Doctors covid exasperated this need. Sorry if I come across harsh, I just see how my Dad is and it makes me angry and some of the things that I would do with him to help cheer him up, I can’t do because of you guess it this god darn virus.

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