We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
|
Samizdata quote of the day About half the patients have managed to recover sufficiently to ‘earn’ a tracheostomy and be weaned off the ventilator. The damage to their lungs makes us all wonder if any will avoid being respiratory cripples. Despite this recovery, COVID is also leading to profound neurological dysfunction. Some patients are agitated and confused but for a significant proportion, the lights are on but no one is home. We wonder how families will react to their loved ones being different people.
– Dr Smith at the Adam Smith Institute’s Despatches blog. Smith is an ASI supporter who has gone back to the NHS for the crisis and is reporting from the front line. We are lucky to have a reliable source of information at a time like this.
|
Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
|
I had been wondering about morbitity levels. That goes a long way to confirming what I suspected. Thanks Patrick (and “Dr Smith”). Well, grimly thanks anyway.
Neurological impacts? The US media is malfunctioning so badly that this blog post is the first I’m even hearing about neurological impacts in recovered patients. That bothers me greatly.
A nice little slice of doom and gloom. So:
1-How many are we talking about compared to the vast majority that shrugged CCP virus off.?What is the difference between these and patients dying from flu–which hundreds of younger people do EVERY Winter.
2-He says 40-50s–surprising is not a %. Many of the patients will be old and have Alzheimers–hardly likely to be restored to vigorous life. Even younger people sedated for weeks on a ventilator are hardly likely to be with it.
3-Says himself many of these folks have co-morbidities of several kinds. I suspect few are healthy and fresh as daisys but even if they were flu also kills a few hundred of them every winter.
4 If his ICU is full of victims –loads of others are half or nearly empty.
5- He is classing those who are going to live as future zombies–on the basis of what? Who knows what level of recovery is possible–just because some are shutdown now does not mean it is permanent.
What he is describing is the ugliness of death –as it is. Making out CCPvirus to be somehow worse is doing nobody any favours.
I have seen doctors in New York (via the internet) – according to them oxygen should be used first before any respirator (as respirators can actually damage the lungs in some cases).These are the sort of doctors who are in private practice – not Governor Cuomo’s people in the big hospitals.
And most important of all – a combination of existing medicines should be used EARLY, before the disease has got a grip and done severe damage.
I did send the accounts to Perry via Twitter – if it is WRONG then fair enough, but it should be proved wrong. Not just ASSUMED to be wrong (which is the assumption that the British establishment make).
The British approach of only starting treatment after things have gone to an extreme is horrible. And the establishment seem to be uninterested in using medicines – even though there is a lot of evidence that they can help.
The death rate here is very bad, and many people who do live are harmed greatly. But there is just endless clapping – and mindless BBC “entertainment” shows – which are really AGITPROP.
This report purports to be from someone who is working in an intensive care ward, I have no reason to doubt the information relayed, and I will take it at face value. The Covid-19 Coronavirus, when not fatal (either by itself or in combination with other conditions or secondary infections) does appear to have extremely deleterious effects on some people. The information available to me appears to indicate that some people may be terribly affected by it (just as ‘flu can be a killer). Some reports I have seen indicate that factors such as obesity, diabetes and neurological conditions may be more serious in presenting risks of ‘complications’ than conditions such as asthma, which, for what is primarily a respiratory ailment, may seem counter-intuitive, but as Mr Ecks points out, what we may have here is a perspective issue, just as lawyers may think any party to a contract is likely to be an unscrupulous, scheming litigant, doctors in intensive care wards only see the most terrible situations. Time and data may show us the correct perspective, even as we see the picture now, we do not have perspective without stepping back, “We’re written on wind” as Steve Winwood sang.
That Covid-19 is termed a respiratory disease is an indication of its primary target, the lungs (respiratory system). However, just as ‘flu can be ‘gastric ‘flu’, that the virus has a primary modus of infecting through the lungs does not mean that it does not spread or strike elsewhere. It should not be a surprise that when it infects other parts of the human body than the lungs that it has serious effects. A virus acts by entering a cell and hijacking a cell’s machinery, using it to make copies of its own genome and coating, killing the cell, which bursts releasing the copies of the virus, which go on to attack other cells. The host’s immune response is, basically, a combination of ‘carpet bombing’ to kill the infected cells and surrounding cells (creating a ‘firewall’) and antibodies which attack the virus itself when it is free, looking for a target. All this is an immense stress on the host, which is having to selectively disrupt its own machinery and keep going. There are a whole host of grim possible complications from this virus, just as with ‘flu, survival is never a given.
As Mr Ecks points out, it is not clear from the OP that the neurological issues are directly attributable to the virus, or factors such as a prolonged period of low blood oxygen, other complications (e.g. blood clots) and drugs may impact on brain functions as well as direct viral attack or consequences of immune responses, or the duration of the impact of the illness.
Certainly the illness when severe is grim, but this tells us nothing about the proportion of those sadly who are affected compared to the entire population. We all have to win the struggle for existence every day, that is the price of staying alive, and it will never change. We don’t all have the right combination of luck, application and circumstances, and nothing can make it otherwise.
But as Paul points out, what treatment apart from ventilators (which are a massive intrusion on the body), and oxygen (100% oxygen is generally regarded as ‘toxic’, nitrogen helpfully dilutes it in our free air) and anti-pyrogenics, painkillers and sedatives are on offer in the NHS? A ventilator may be a tool of ‘last resort’ for doctors when they are running out of other options, and I note that the noise about ventilator shortages appears to have faded recently, probably because extra ventilators are no longer required, costing Sir James Dyson £20,000,000 personally, and apparent lack of PPE is now ‘the issue’ (despite the Coronavirus regulations coming on at 6.50 am on 10th February 2020).
And then there is Bastiat’s point ‘What is seen, and what is not seen?’. The economic chaos, the debt, the other sick undiagnosed or untreated as a consequence, and the tyranny? As Tolkien put it through Gandalf in another context (I would interpose ‘to liberty’ after ‘to deal out death’ here:
Aside from everything else, kudos on the Steve Winwood quote.
Indeed. I recall there was a spate of “Mrs. Xyz died of COVID-19 at a young age without any comorbidities”. That had me worried for a bit until one of them was pictured and she was the size of a beached whale…ignoring one of the most serious comorbidities there is…obesity (and probably undiagnosed type 2 diabetes)
Maybe they should have added a THMT* warning
* – “The Harpoons! Man Them!”
A family member with heart failure had the same problem. I doubt the neurological problems have anything to do with the virus per se, but rather they’re a consequence of lack of sufficient oxygen to the brain.
I had always associated that lyric with Reg Pressley of the Troggs singing “Love is all around” rather than Stevie Winwood but maybe there’s another song.
The damage to the brain is most likely caused by oxygen starvation.
It is sometimes NOT the muscles of the lungs that are the problem – it is the ability of the cells of the lungs (which are under attack by the virus) to get oxygen into the blood.
Establishment medical types seem to be overlooking this possibility. Just as they are overlooking the need to use EXISTING MEDICINES hydoxchloroquine (NOT on its own – but with zinc ad so on, and under the supervision of a medical doctor who knows what they are doing) BEFORE a patient gets to this extreme condition.
Medical treatment (with medicines) needs to start EARLY – people should not be left to get worse and worse.
Sadly the establishment just continues to LIE ( for example the BBC is still pushing the lie that the President wants to inject people with bleach).
This British establishmentarianism has to stop.
Douglas Haig was NOT a good General – and the British government “scientific advisers” are NOT good at science.
This is Sir Francis Bacon “science” a man who wanted to make it a crime to say that the Earth went round the Sun.
British establishment “science” (indeed establishment “science” in general) is an excuse for a “New Atlantis” style power grab – for the totalitarianism that the false intellectuals have long dreamed of.
Only yesterday I was talking to a Conservative Member of Parliament – and he was citing (as if it had some connection to truth) the Imperial Collage report – the long discredited Imperial College report.
Now I fully admit that I was taken in by these people at first – but at some point the government has to wake up and smell the coffee.
The government has to tell the “experts” (the heirs to Sir Charles Trevelyan and Sir Douglas Haig) to go away. You do not put taxes UP in a economic crises (Ireland late 1840s), you do not walk slowly in lines towards enemy defences (especially when the positions being attacked are of no value), and you do not handle a medical emergency like this.
Otherwise there is no point in having General Elections at all – not if the elected government (of whatever party) blindly follows the “experts”.
With twenty thousand people now dead in the United Kingdom and the economy in danger of being totally destroyed, and that would cost MILLIONS OF LIVES, it is time to tell the “experts” to go away.
It may already be too late – and each day that passes under “lockdown” makes the position closer to total collapse.
I just wrote what I hope was an informative comment – but it has not appeared, so I will try again.
The long term damage reported sounds like the effect of oxygen starvation to the brain. The virus may not be attacking the muscles powering the lungs – it may be attacking the ability of the cells in the lungs which get oxygen to the blood The medical establishment seem resistant to this possibility – but it is (as a front line doctor whose filmed testimony I sent to Perry) the one consistent with the evidence. We are always being told to “follow science” – but the British “scientific experts” seem deeply hostile to the scientific method, preferring their own mathematical models to empirical evidence.
Just as it is important to get oxygen to the blood, so it is also important to start medical treatment (real medical treatment – medicines) EARLY before patients have gone to an extreme stage. Of course hydroxchloroquine should be used with zinc (and so on) and of course it should be used by medical doctors who know what they are doing.
However, just dismissing medicines without even trying them (in total defiance of medical science) is madness. And the LYING from the establishment has to stop – even today the BBC was still pushing its lies about President Trump (“he wants to inject you with bleach”) and I am sure the lying American media are doing the same.
Vast numbers of people have died – it is time to stop the establishmentarian lies and start actually treating the sick – with medicines. Treating people long before they get to the intensive care stage – and treating them with medicines and (if need be) with oxygen.
Only yesterday I talked to a Conservative Member of Parliament – and he was still citing, as if it was true, the long discredited Imperial College report – if the government really is still following such “expert advice” then we are in terrible trouble.
YES I fully admit that I was taken in at first by these people – but at some point one has to wake up and smell the coffee, unless one wants MILLIONS OF PEOPLE TO DIE IN AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE. The “lockdown” must be rejected, and the “experts” told to away.
General Douglas Haig was NOT a good General – one does not attack prepared enemy defences with frontal attacks by infantry walking slowly in long lines, especially when the positions being attacked have-no-value. Sir Charles Trevelyan was NOT a good person to be in charge of Ireland in the late 1840s – one does NOT respond to a crises by massively INCREASING taxation (under the deluded notion that property taxation only hits people who own property – all taxes are passes on and wreak everyone, not just the property owners). “Expert advice” is actually often wrong.
What was are seeing now in Britain and elsewhere is not science – it is “science”. The sort of stuff that Sir Francis Bacon trotted out – and he was a man who wanted to forbid people saying that the Earth went round the Sun. His “science” was just an excuse for his totalitarian power dreams – the “New Atlantis”, and nothing much has changed with modern “experts” (as we can see from the totalitarian madness of the “lockdown”).
It may already be too late – some 20 thousand people have died of the virus in the United Kingdom (and many of them could have been saved), and MILLIONS of lives are at stake if the “lockdown” continues – leading to economic collapse.
But because it may already be too late to prevent economic collapse is no excuse to carry on the madness. We must TRY to save the economy – TRY to save millions of lives, which are at risk from economic collapse.
The “lockdown” must end, and the sick must be treated – treated with medicines (BEFORE they get to a desperate state) and, if need be, with oxygen. After all the Prime Minister was treated with oxygen (not, in his case, a ventilator).
There is no point, none, in holding elections if elected politicians of all political parties just follow the totalitarian “advice” of “scientific experts”.
As Maurice Cowling pointed out in his attack on J.S. Mill – such a system would not be democracy at all – it would be the illusion of democracy with the reality of the people having no-power-at-all. “You can vote for anyone you like – but we decide what policy is” that is not democracy.
“Lockdowns” have not (not) saved lives (as can be seen by comparing places without lockdowns to places that have gone down the totalitarian road). And they are leading to economic collapse – and economic collapse would cost MILLIONS of lives.
It may indeed already be too late – but we must try to save our country, save it from the madness of the “experts”.
@ Paul Mark’s
‘The long term damage reported sounds like the effect of oxygen starvation to the brain. The virus may not be attacking the muscles powering the lungs – it may be attacking the ability of the cells in the lungs which get oxygen to the blood The medical establishment seem resistant to this possibility – but it is (as a front line doctor whose filmed testimony I sent to Perry) the one consistent with the evidence. We are always being told to “follow science” – but the British “scientific experts” seem deeply hostile to the scientific method, preferring their own mathematical models to empirical evidence.’
As been reported, smokers have relatively small incidence of covid symptoms. Smoking has been demonised for so many years that it would be for medics etc to reverse gear on this. I know some research is being done in France (using nicotine patches) investigating its relationship to ACE 2 receptors. I dont pretend to understand the science but recently learnt that mountain climbing smokers are not prone to altitude sickness and that it was connected to nitric oxide found in cigarette smoke.
I was pointed in the direction of this old report:
https://web.archive.org/web/20051029212635/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=222612
So maybe the French researchers are on the right track but the wrong route.
Wasn’t Boris on a ventilator. Although even if there was brain damage we wouldn’t notice any difference.
However, I have no doubt that Boris the buffoon got the best care. Not simply following the advice that they give out but real proactive treatment with a several nurses and doctors looking after him 24/7 so he will be fine. Just as normal, for him anyway.
Paul Marks: “It is sometimes NOT the muscles of the lungs that are the problem”
I apologise up front Mr Marks, for what may seem a pedantic intervention. But I think you’ll find the lungs have no muscles.
The lungs are essentially a sponge with air passages passing through them and operate in the sealed chest cavity.
The air is introduced into and expelled from the lungs by expansion and contraction of the diaphragm. Dependant on the seal in the chest cavity, and is why all the best assassins will deliver a ‘double tap’, left and right chest cavities leading to complete loss of chest seal, and if your victim wasn’t yet dying from blood loss, his next most pressing concern would be his collapsed lungs and associated inability to breath.
Covid-19 is thought to attack the ACT* receptors in the lung tissue, and other body organs too. Which may account for the ‘co-morbid’ conditionality, if you’re obese and your pancreas is already knackered any additional loss of function could easily finish you off.
A by product of an individual’s attempt to fight off the COVID-19 onslaught, is that the alveoli fill with fluid, and in advanced cases the lung tissue itself becomes congested. The result is the lungs, which should be spongy and flexible becoming ridged.
One reason the BBC led furore about ventilators was such a wicked ignorant and politically motivated waste of time and money. You can’t force oxygen into a congested lung with out risking severe and possibly terminal damage to the lung structure itself.
*There is some speculation that Asians may have more ACT receptors and thus be somewhat more susceptible to COVID-19 having said that, those
manning‘personing’ the anti racist baricades will be on high alert, now.“Covid-19 is thought to attack the ACT* receptors in the lung tissue”
ACE2 receptors. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 is part of the mechanism for controlling blood pressure and blood flow, by controlling the muscular walls that constrict the size of blood vessels. It’s mainly active in the lungs, heart, arteries, intestine, and kidneys. In the more severe forms of COVID-19, organ failure of and permanent damage to the intestine, kidneys, and heart, with a total collapse of blood pressure have been noted, and a lot of people die of heart attacks before they ever make it to hospital.
NiV: “ACE2 receptors. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 is part of the mechanism”
Thank you for the correction.
No, he wasn’t.
APL, You’re very welcome.
There’s lots more technical material on SARS-CoV-2 here, if you’re interested. On the first page (currently) there’s a link to this paper which, as you describe, links susceptibility to genetic differences in ACE2 genes between different parts of the world.
APL
Well if a particular genetic background and thus ethnicity results in greater susceptibility to COVID-19, which the UK government is apparently looking at (or conversely, lower susceptibility) the government will clearly want to know your ethnicity and parentage as a rough and ready way to protect those most at risk, or allow certain types out-and-about, and it could then issue directives to those in particular ethnic categories to undergo ‘shielding‘, or that they be free to move around. Clearly, in some cases it might need social workers to help to classify people for their Coronavirus passports, after all, DNA testing in short order would take away from the current testing effort. After all, once the government can do anything for our own good, it might do anything.
This government would congratulate itself in such circumstances on having avoided disadvantage based on race, and ensuring the safety for ‘our communities’ with a targeted, evidence-based approach, without even realising or caring that it would have re-invented Apartheid.
This guy is probably a bullshitter. His perspective isn’t conducive to ‘FULL ON PANIC!!’.
It’s also related to blood group. Raising concerns about bura-hara, would you think?
Interesting! Thanks for that. I’m not a mountain climber, but have been at high-altitude and was always curious why the smokers in the group seemed, anecdotally, to be less affected than the non-smokers.
This guy is probably a bullshitter — APL@April 25, 2020 at 6:10 pm
Turns out, two doctors delivering an informative but off narrative presentation is against YouTube’s terms and conditions.
Coming back OT, an interesting article in Science about ‘happy hypoxia’, patients acting normally with very low blood oxygen, for a while anyway, and use of blood thinners rather than ventilators.
Somewhere on YT there’s an interview with Cdr Rick Jolly the Royal Navy medic who ran the field hospital in the Falklands War, who marvelled at some of his patients with massive blood loss and no discernable pulse talking normally and fully awake despite their situation, presumably a similar preseentation, but drawn from fit young men rather than the general population.