Is our medical system doing all that’s possible to treat people with the SARS-CoV-2?
I want to stop right here and say that I really appreciate Dr. Roussin and the other health workers for their tireless work. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot question.
We hear news of medicines with efficacy, not being employed in Canada. One such treatment, applicable early in hospital treatment, was developed by a Canadian researcher and is distributed by Eli Lilly. Canada purchased 26,000 doses some time ago. Have they been deployed?
Two weeks ago, CBC carried an interview of Dr. Carl Hansen, the co-founder and CEO of AbCellera, a Vancouver-based technology company that discovered the first monoclonal antibody therapy authorized in North America to treat COVID-19.
He said clinical trials in over 5,000 patients with COVID-19 proved effective. No patients died. These were patients with co-morbidities - obesity, compromised immune systems and over 65, like so many of us. The key to successful monoclonal antibody treatment, treatment within a window of early hospitalization.
It seems that in the drive toward vaccines, our medical system is ignoring some treatments. Why? We are told vaccines are the only way to beat the virus and there is a huge focus there (and on telling us daily death and infection statistics).
But everyone is not getting a vaccine right away due mainly to shortage of the product.
Some people are skeptical of the mRNA vaccines.
And some vaccines, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson, have been halted by regulatory agencies for certain populations due to associated problems.
My concern is that the horses ran out of the open barn door over a year ago. Variants pop up more regularly than not, now.
We have the virus moving unseen among us, stealing our health, and stealing our peace. Stealing our business livelihood as we move to more online shopping, lining the pockets of the likes of Amazon.
How can we be healthy in mind and body when we cannot trust that kids will be in school or in universities being educated? We can’t hug, have coffee, see our seniors and extended families, play sports, enjoy birthday parties, weddings and saddest of all celebrate the lives of those we have lost.
This is not freedom. We can’t mix in our communities with friends and neighbours without six feet of worry between us? Church meetings and other faith gatherings are strictly limited and even prohibited at times. What will happen to our rodeo, milk run fairs? Music and the arts?
Our medical system needs to pull out all the stops, advise us of routine lifestyle items that can help protect us by beefing up our immune systems to handle the virus, and employ every known treatment.
I have already written about a simple, inexpensive drug, ivermectin. Every veterinarian and livestock person knows it well. It’s also used in humans against scabies and other parasitic infections.
Well, here’s more from a health news site: “Dr. Alessandro Santin, a practicing oncologist and scientist who runs a large laboratory at Yale, believes firmly that ivermectin could vastly cut suffering from COVID-19. Santin joins a growing group of doctors committed to using the safe, generic drug both as an early home treatment to prevent hospitalization and alongside inpatient treatments like steroids and oxygen.”https://trialsitenews.com/top-yale-doctor
We need more advice for lifestyle, to give us a fighting chance as this bug moves unseen among us. There is almost no (official) mention of the practical use of Vitamin D, Zinc and other over the counter helps.
Our doctors need the go-ahead from our health agencies to use drugs and medicines, in some cases off-label, that are showing efficacy and are proven safe within correct dosage.
Is the system constipated, or confused?The interview on CBC’s Power and Politics came to my attention recently, thanks to one of our Virden reader’s mention of it.
On further research, I found an Op Ed by Dr. Carl Hansen (referred to by CBC) by the Canadian scientist behind this monoclonal antibody treatment. I share a few lines from the Daily Hive:dailyhive.com/vancouver/abcellera-antibody-therapies-opinion
“Health Canada granted bamlanivimab interim authorization as a COVID-19 treatment on November 20, 2020, and the federal government purchased up to 26,000 doses in December. It has been administered to very few Canadians because no province has recommended use of COVID-19 antibody therapy as a standard of care.
“Since November, bamlanivimab (Hansen’s drug) has been authorized in more than 15 countries around the world, including the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, and Israel.
“In the U.S. alone, more than 360,000 patients have been treated with bamlanivimab, with millions of additional doses being distributed to 3,000-plus treatment centers.
“Meanwhile, we have had an effective antibody therapy sitting on the shelf.”
And this makes me ask why.
I will further add that there is now a petition initiated by a former pharmacology professor Kanji Nakatsu from Queen’s University.
Prof. Nakatsu is among a growing local group of concerned doctors, scientists and community activists that are coming together to give an official voice to early treatment and other science-based pandemic recommendations.
It is noted on the petition that over some 20 years, ivermectin has been administered to 7.85 billion people. Some countries have made it an OTC option. You can read more about ivermectin’s safety and efficacy record on the petition Here’s the petition:
