• (Monica) Greeting MichaelE on 06/15/22 ...

    From HeartDoc Andrew@21:1/5 to Michael Ejercito on Wed Jun 15 00:01:41 2022
    XPost: alt.bible.prophecy, soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.israel
    XPost: talk.politics.guns

    Michael Ejercito wrote:

    http://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/99225?xid=nl_secondopinion_2022-06-14&eun=g1662251d0r


    We're Not Out of the Pandemic Woods Yet
    — The end of the COVID emergency phase may be nearing, but we must
    remain vigilant
    by Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, and Michael Daignault, MD June 14, 2022

    share to facebook
    share to twitter
    share to linkedin
    email article
    A computer rendering of a COVID virus colored as the Earth.
    The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading per the World Health >Organization, the European CDC, and U.S. public health officials. But
    the pandemic is not over. We have the tools at our disposal to continue
    to save lives and keep the burden on our hospitals low. This is what we
    need to do next.

    Better Hospitalization Tracking Metrics

    We need better tracking of COVID-19 in hospitals. We previously proposed >delineating hospitalizations by "for COVID" rather than "with COVID,"
    but disease progression is dynamic during a hospital admission. A better >metric, as is being looked at in Massachusetts, is to track use of the >steroid dexamethasone as a surrogate for hospitalized patients with
    severe COVID-19 illness. Another possibility is to directly track which >patients require oxygen.

    In the emergency department (ED), the presence of hypoxia is the primary >determinant of whether a COVID-19 patient needs hospitalization. These >patients are treated with dexamethasone and require a higher level of
    care, including pulmonary, infectious disease, and respiratory therapist >consultations. Delineating hospitalizations for COVID-19 by use of >dexamethasone or supplemental oxygen would give us a more accurate, >bird's-eye view of hospital resource use and help public health
    officials understand when hospitals are being overwhelmed with severely
    ill patients.

    Link Home Rapid Tests With Reporting Mechanism and Expand Wastewater Sites

    The U.S. government recently provided a third round of free at-home
    rapid tests through its centralized covid.gov hub. This has been a great >resource for Americans to safely test at home and quickly begin
    isolating if COVID-positive.

    However, home testing has led to significant underreporting of COVID-19 >cases. We need greater effort from government and testing companies to >encourage and incentivize people to report the results of their home
    tests, as is being done in the U.K. through the National Health Service.
    Many kits already include a way to report results through their mobile
    apps, and the government should launch public awareness campaigns to >facilitate this reporting. Testing companies must then share results
    with local county health departments.

    Expansion of COVID-19 wastewater surveillance sites is also critical. >Increased incidence of COVID-19 here can precede officially recorded
    cases by a matter of weeks, allowing time for health systems to prepare
    for a possible surge in patients and for public officials to consider >re-implementing stricter public health measures.

    Continue the Push for Vaccines

    Vaccines targeting the wild type spike have continued to hold up well in >preventing severe disease and hospitalization by the more immune-evasive >Omicron and its subvariants. The reason: T cells and memory B cells
    continue to work against variants, even Omicron.

    However, some groups remain vulnerable: we must double down on boosters
    for the elderly. A large Veterans Affairs study of patients with a
    median age of 71 during the Omicron surge showed those with three doses
    had a lower rate of hospitalization and need for ICU level of care than
    those with only two doses. Despite the apparent less intrinsically
    severe nature of Omicron, almost as many Americans over 65 died during
    the winter surge as died from last year's Delta variant surge. A second >booster is now available for those over 50 in the U.S., although most
    other countries have decided on an older age cut-off for this dose. This >second booster unfortunately wanes faster than the first booster in
    terms of antibodies, but each booster (or exposure) diversifies and
    broadens T-cell responses to the virus and expands the potency of B
    cells. Therefore, boosters are important for those at high risk for
    severe COVID-19.

    The next step for the FDA is to expand our vaccine arsenal.

    Most urgent is the need to authorize vaccines (from both Moderna and
    Pfizer) for kids under 5. Once authorized, we need additional research
    to determine the most effective dosing schedule. For older age groups,
    an extended 8-week or longer interval schedule has been shown to
    maximize immunogenicity and effectiveness. We'll need to determine the
    best approach for young kids under 5 too, and investigate how previous
    COVID infection factors into this.

    Considering alternative vaccine technologies is also a priority. The
    Novavax vaccine, which involves the spike protein combined with an
    adjuvant, was recommended by an FDA advisory committee earlier this
    month and now awaits FDA authorization, pending a manufacturing review. >Perhaps a more familiar vaccine technology will sway some who remain
    hesitant about mRNA vaccines. FDA should also consider nasal vaccines an >important next step in our armamentarium. These vaccines induce faster >mobilization of antibodies to our throats and nasal passages, which,
    beyond just preventing severe COVID-19, may better protect people from >getting infected in the first place.

    Finally, the FDA needs to determine the makeup for the next generation
    of vaccines due this fall. There are several contenders: the Omicron
    bivalent vaccine booster by Moderna increases neutralizing antibodies
    more than a booster directed against the old strain, although studies in >primates previously performed by the NIH did not demonstrate superior >protection against disease by the Omicron-specific vaccine. The Covaxin >vaccine is an inactivated whole virus vaccine that is effective against
    all of the emerging variants, with a recent study showing strong
    cellular immune responses against Omicron. FDA will need to thoroughly
    assess which options offer the most safety and efficacy.

    Ensure Access to Therapeutics

    With a non-eradicable virus like SARS-CoV-2, therapeutics are essential
    to keeping our rates of severe disease low among older and high-risk >patients.

    Real-world data show a clear benefit of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir
    (Paxlovid) in those high-risk for severe COVID-19, whether vaccinated or
    not (the original clinical trial studied the drug only among
    unvaccinated individuals). Even against the more immune-evasive Omicron >variant, in those age 65 and above there was an 81% reduction in death
    and 67% reduction in hospitalization. There was no benefit for >nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in those 40 to 64 years for protecting against
    severe disease. Molnupiravir, another oral antiviral, has fewer
    drug-drug interactions than nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, since it does not
    require a ritonavir booster. In a recent subset analysis from the
    MOVe-OUT study, molnupiravir demonstrated an 89% reduction in
    hospitalization or death among immune-compromised participants.

    These therapeutics are in robust supply. At the end of May, only around
    30% of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir doses ordered by the government had been
    used. After a White House initiative to transform testing sites into >federally funded "test to treat" locations, more than 182,000
    prescriptions for oral antivirals were filled during the last week of
    May, and 40,000 pharmacies and other locations now have antiviral pills
    in stock. We need to ensure continued -- and equal -- access among all >high-risk Americans.

    Monoclonal antibodies also remain in our treatment and prevention
    arsenal. Bebtelovimab remains a powerful option to prevent severe
    disease and hospitalization in high-risk patients, with persistent
    activity against BA.2.12.1. As EDs across the country return to peak >pre-pandemic patient volume for other medical conditions, bebtelovimab
    is a great one-and-done option since it's given as an intravenous dose
    pushed over 30 seconds. For certain immunocompromised patients who are
    unable to mount a significant protective response from vaccines, a >long-acting dual-monoclonal antibody can help. Tixagevimab co-packaged
    with cilgavimab (Evusheld) given as preexposure prophylaxis demonstrated
    an impressive 82.8% relative risk reduction for all COVID-19 symptoms at
    6 months, with retained activity against subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

    What about treatment for long COVID? While an exact etiology remains
    elusive, one of its proposed mechanisms is a high viral load.
    Vaccination is highly protective against long COVID. For those with
    residual symptoms, some case studies have offered evidence that oral >antivirals could reduce symptoms, so this must be studied further.

    On to the Next Phase

    We are certainly in a much stronger position against SARS-COV-2 than we
    have ever been. Vaccines continue to provide robust protection against
    severe illness and death. Therapeutics can keep high-risk patients out
    of the hospital. The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading. We
    now need to avoid backsliding and instead look toward better future
    COVID management.

    The next phase will require increasing trust in our public health
    system, updating vaccines for all, continued ease-of-access of
    therapeutics, new whole virus vaccines in the future, novel therapeutics >currently in development, and nasal vaccines. Let's remain vigilant and >continue to move ahead.

    The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
    the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
    finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
    among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
    asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
    15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
    doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
    best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
    mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
    Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
    slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
    http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.

    Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
    ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.

    So how are you ?









    ...because we mindfully choose to openly care with our heart,

    HeartDoc Andrew <><
    --
    Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
    Cardiologist with an http://bit.ly/EternalMedicalLicense
    2024 & upwards non-partisan candidate for U.S. President: http://WonderfullyHungry.org
    and author of the 2PD-OMER Approach:
    http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrewCare
    which is the only **healthy** cure for the U.S. healthcare crisis

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Michael Ejercito@21:1/5 to HeartDoc Andrew on Tue Jun 14 21:13:36 2022
    XPost: alt.bible.prophecy, soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.israel
    XPost: talk.politics.guns

    HeartDoc Andrew wrote:
    Michael Ejercito wrote:

    http://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/99225?xid=nl_secondopinion_2022-06-14&eun=g1662251d0r


    We're Not Out of the Pandemic Woods Yet
    — The end of the COVID emergency phase may be nearing, but we must
    remain vigilant
    by Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, and Michael Daignault, MD June 14, 2022

    share to facebook
    share to twitter
    share to linkedin
    email article
    A computer rendering of a COVID virus colored as the Earth.
    The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading per the World Health
    Organization, the European CDC, and U.S. public health officials. But
    the pandemic is not over. We have the tools at our disposal to continue
    to save lives and keep the burden on our hospitals low. This is what we
    need to do next.

    Better Hospitalization Tracking Metrics

    We need better tracking of COVID-19 in hospitals. We previously proposed
    delineating hospitalizations by "for COVID" rather than "with COVID,"
    but disease progression is dynamic during a hospital admission. A better
    metric, as is being looked at in Massachusetts, is to track use of the
    steroid dexamethasone as a surrogate for hospitalized patients with
    severe COVID-19 illness. Another possibility is to directly track which
    patients require oxygen.

    In the emergency department (ED), the presence of hypoxia is the primary
    determinant of whether a COVID-19 patient needs hospitalization. These
    patients are treated with dexamethasone and require a higher level of
    care, including pulmonary, infectious disease, and respiratory therapist
    consultations. Delineating hospitalizations for COVID-19 by use of
    dexamethasone or supplemental oxygen would give us a more accurate,
    bird's-eye view of hospital resource use and help public health
    officials understand when hospitals are being overwhelmed with severely
    ill patients.

    Link Home Rapid Tests With Reporting Mechanism and Expand Wastewater Sites >>
    The U.S. government recently provided a third round of free at-home
    rapid tests through its centralized covid.gov hub. This has been a great
    resource for Americans to safely test at home and quickly begin
    isolating if COVID-positive.

    However, home testing has led to significant underreporting of COVID-19
    cases. We need greater effort from government and testing companies to
    encourage and incentivize people to report the results of their home
    tests, as is being done in the U.K. through the National Health Service.
    Many kits already include a way to report results through their mobile
    apps, and the government should launch public awareness campaigns to
    facilitate this reporting. Testing companies must then share results
    with local county health departments.

    Expansion of COVID-19 wastewater surveillance sites is also critical.
    Increased incidence of COVID-19 here can precede officially recorded
    cases by a matter of weeks, allowing time for health systems to prepare
    for a possible surge in patients and for public officials to consider
    re-implementing stricter public health measures.

    Continue the Push for Vaccines

    Vaccines targeting the wild type spike have continued to hold up well in
    preventing severe disease and hospitalization by the more immune-evasive
    Omicron and its subvariants. The reason: T cells and memory B cells
    continue to work against variants, even Omicron.

    However, some groups remain vulnerable: we must double down on boosters
    for the elderly. A large Veterans Affairs study of patients with a
    median age of 71 during the Omicron surge showed those with three doses
    had a lower rate of hospitalization and need for ICU level of care than
    those with only two doses. Despite the apparent less intrinsically
    severe nature of Omicron, almost as many Americans over 65 died during
    the winter surge as died from last year's Delta variant surge. A second
    booster is now available for those over 50 in the U.S., although most
    other countries have decided on an older age cut-off for this dose. This
    second booster unfortunately wanes faster than the first booster in
    terms of antibodies, but each booster (or exposure) diversifies and
    broadens T-cell responses to the virus and expands the potency of B
    cells. Therefore, boosters are important for those at high risk for
    severe COVID-19.

    The next step for the FDA is to expand our vaccine arsenal.

    Most urgent is the need to authorize vaccines (from both Moderna and
    Pfizer) for kids under 5. Once authorized, we need additional research
    to determine the most effective dosing schedule. For older age groups,
    an extended 8-week or longer interval schedule has been shown to
    maximize immunogenicity and effectiveness. We'll need to determine the
    best approach for young kids under 5 too, and investigate how previous
    COVID infection factors into this.

    Considering alternative vaccine technologies is also a priority. The
    Novavax vaccine, which involves the spike protein combined with an
    adjuvant, was recommended by an FDA advisory committee earlier this
    month and now awaits FDA authorization, pending a manufacturing review.
    Perhaps a more familiar vaccine technology will sway some who remain
    hesitant about mRNA vaccines. FDA should also consider nasal vaccines an
    important next step in our armamentarium. These vaccines induce faster
    mobilization of antibodies to our throats and nasal passages, which,
    beyond just preventing severe COVID-19, may better protect people from
    getting infected in the first place.

    Finally, the FDA needs to determine the makeup for the next generation
    of vaccines due this fall. There are several contenders: the Omicron
    bivalent vaccine booster by Moderna increases neutralizing antibodies
    more than a booster directed against the old strain, although studies in
    primates previously performed by the NIH did not demonstrate superior
    protection against disease by the Omicron-specific vaccine. The Covaxin
    vaccine is an inactivated whole virus vaccine that is effective against
    all of the emerging variants, with a recent study showing strong
    cellular immune responses against Omicron. FDA will need to thoroughly
    assess which options offer the most safety and efficacy.

    Ensure Access to Therapeutics

    With a non-eradicable virus like SARS-CoV-2, therapeutics are essential
    to keeping our rates of severe disease low among older and high-risk
    patients.

    Real-world data show a clear benefit of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir
    (Paxlovid) in those high-risk for severe COVID-19, whether vaccinated or
    not (the original clinical trial studied the drug only among
    unvaccinated individuals). Even against the more immune-evasive Omicron
    variant, in those age 65 and above there was an 81% reduction in death
    and 67% reduction in hospitalization. There was no benefit for
    nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in those 40 to 64 years for protecting against
    severe disease. Molnupiravir, another oral antiviral, has fewer
    drug-drug interactions than nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, since it does not
    require a ritonavir booster. In a recent subset analysis from the
    MOVe-OUT study, molnupiravir demonstrated an 89% reduction in
    hospitalization or death among immune-compromised participants.

    These therapeutics are in robust supply. At the end of May, only around
    30% of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir doses ordered by the government had been
    used. After a White House initiative to transform testing sites into
    federally funded "test to treat" locations, more than 182,000
    prescriptions for oral antivirals were filled during the last week of
    May, and 40,000 pharmacies and other locations now have antiviral pills
    in stock. We need to ensure continued -- and equal -- access among all
    high-risk Americans.

    Monoclonal antibodies also remain in our treatment and prevention
    arsenal. Bebtelovimab remains a powerful option to prevent severe
    disease and hospitalization in high-risk patients, with persistent
    activity against BA.2.12.1. As EDs across the country return to peak
    pre-pandemic patient volume for other medical conditions, bebtelovimab
    is a great one-and-done option since it's given as an intravenous dose
    pushed over 30 seconds. For certain immunocompromised patients who are
    unable to mount a significant protective response from vaccines, a
    long-acting dual-monoclonal antibody can help. Tixagevimab co-packaged
    with cilgavimab (Evusheld) given as preexposure prophylaxis demonstrated
    an impressive 82.8% relative risk reduction for all COVID-19 symptoms at
    6 months, with retained activity against subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

    What about treatment for long COVID? While an exact etiology remains
    elusive, one of its proposed mechanisms is a high viral load.
    Vaccination is highly protective against long COVID. For those with
    residual symptoms, some case studies have offered evidence that oral
    antivirals could reduce symptoms, so this must be studied further.

    On to the Next Phase

    We are certainly in a much stronger position against SARS-COV-2 than we
    have ever been. Vaccines continue to provide robust protection against
    severe illness and death. Therapeutics can keep high-risk patients out
    of the hospital. The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading. We
    now need to avoid backsliding and instead look toward better future
    COVID management.

    The next phase will require increasing trust in our public health
    system, updating vaccines for all, continued ease-of-access of
    therapeutics, new whole virus vaccines in the future, novel therapeutics
    currently in development, and nasal vaccines. Let's remain vigilant and
    continue to move ahead.

    The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
    the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
    among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
    asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
    15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
    doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
    best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
    Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
    slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
    http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.

    Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
    ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.

    So how are you ?
    I am wonderfully hungry!


    Michael

    --
    This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
    https://www.avg.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From HeartDoc Andrew@21:1/5 to Michael Ejercito on Wed Jun 15 00:32:09 2022
    XPost: alt.bible.prophecy, soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.israel
    XPost: talk.politics.guns

    Michael Ejercito wrote:
    HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
    Michael Ejercito wrote:

    http://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/99225?xid=nl_secondopinion_2022-06-14&eun=g1662251d0r


    We're Not Out of the Pandemic Woods Yet
    — The end of the COVID emergency phase may be nearing, but we must
    remain vigilant
    by Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, and Michael Daignault, MD June 14, 2022

    share to facebook
    share to twitter
    share to linkedin
    email article
    A computer rendering of a COVID virus colored as the Earth.
    The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading per the World Health
    Organization, the European CDC, and U.S. public health officials. But
    the pandemic is not over. We have the tools at our disposal to continue
    to save lives and keep the burden on our hospitals low. This is what we
    need to do next.

    Better Hospitalization Tracking Metrics

    We need better tracking of COVID-19 in hospitals. We previously proposed >>> delineating hospitalizations by "for COVID" rather than "with COVID,"
    but disease progression is dynamic during a hospital admission. A better >>> metric, as is being looked at in Massachusetts, is to track use of the
    steroid dexamethasone as a surrogate for hospitalized patients with
    severe COVID-19 illness. Another possibility is to directly track which
    patients require oxygen.

    In the emergency department (ED), the presence of hypoxia is the primary >>> determinant of whether a COVID-19 patient needs hospitalization. These
    patients are treated with dexamethasone and require a higher level of
    care, including pulmonary, infectious disease, and respiratory therapist >>> consultations. Delineating hospitalizations for COVID-19 by use of
    dexamethasone or supplemental oxygen would give us a more accurate,
    bird's-eye view of hospital resource use and help public health
    officials understand when hospitals are being overwhelmed with severely
    ill patients.

    Link Home Rapid Tests With Reporting Mechanism and Expand Wastewater Sites >>>
    The U.S. government recently provided a third round of free at-home
    rapid tests through its centralized covid.gov hub. This has been a great >>> resource for Americans to safely test at home and quickly begin
    isolating if COVID-positive.

    However, home testing has led to significant underreporting of COVID-19
    cases. We need greater effort from government and testing companies to
    encourage and incentivize people to report the results of their home
    tests, as is being done in the U.K. through the National Health Service. >>> Many kits already include a way to report results through their mobile
    apps, and the government should launch public awareness campaigns to
    facilitate this reporting. Testing companies must then share results
    with local county health departments.

    Expansion of COVID-19 wastewater surveillance sites is also critical.
    Increased incidence of COVID-19 here can precede officially recorded
    cases by a matter of weeks, allowing time for health systems to prepare
    for a possible surge in patients and for public officials to consider
    re-implementing stricter public health measures.

    Continue the Push for Vaccines

    Vaccines targeting the wild type spike have continued to hold up well in >>> preventing severe disease and hospitalization by the more immune-evasive >>> Omicron and its subvariants. The reason: T cells and memory B cells
    continue to work against variants, even Omicron.

    However, some groups remain vulnerable: we must double down on boosters
    for the elderly. A large Veterans Affairs study of patients with a
    median age of 71 during the Omicron surge showed those with three doses
    had a lower rate of hospitalization and need for ICU level of care than
    those with only two doses. Despite the apparent less intrinsically
    severe nature of Omicron, almost as many Americans over 65 died during
    the winter surge as died from last year's Delta variant surge. A second
    booster is now available for those over 50 in the U.S., although most
    other countries have decided on an older age cut-off for this dose. This >>> second booster unfortunately wanes faster than the first booster in
    terms of antibodies, but each booster (or exposure) diversifies and
    broadens T-cell responses to the virus and expands the potency of B
    cells. Therefore, boosters are important for those at high risk for
    severe COVID-19.

    The next step for the FDA is to expand our vaccine arsenal.

    Most urgent is the need to authorize vaccines (from both Moderna and
    Pfizer) for kids under 5. Once authorized, we need additional research
    to determine the most effective dosing schedule. For older age groups,
    an extended 8-week or longer interval schedule has been shown to
    maximize immunogenicity and effectiveness. We'll need to determine the
    best approach for young kids under 5 too, and investigate how previous
    COVID infection factors into this.

    Considering alternative vaccine technologies is also a priority. The
    Novavax vaccine, which involves the spike protein combined with an
    adjuvant, was recommended by an FDA advisory committee earlier this
    month and now awaits FDA authorization, pending a manufacturing review.
    Perhaps a more familiar vaccine technology will sway some who remain
    hesitant about mRNA vaccines. FDA should also consider nasal vaccines an >>> important next step in our armamentarium. These vaccines induce faster
    mobilization of antibodies to our throats and nasal passages, which,
    beyond just preventing severe COVID-19, may better protect people from
    getting infected in the first place.

    Finally, the FDA needs to determine the makeup for the next generation
    of vaccines due this fall. There are several contenders: the Omicron
    bivalent vaccine booster by Moderna increases neutralizing antibodies
    more than a booster directed against the old strain, although studies in >>> primates previously performed by the NIH did not demonstrate superior
    protection against disease by the Omicron-specific vaccine. The Covaxin
    vaccine is an inactivated whole virus vaccine that is effective against
    all of the emerging variants, with a recent study showing strong
    cellular immune responses against Omicron. FDA will need to thoroughly
    assess which options offer the most safety and efficacy.

    Ensure Access to Therapeutics

    With a non-eradicable virus like SARS-CoV-2, therapeutics are essential
    to keeping our rates of severe disease low among older and high-risk
    patients.

    Real-world data show a clear benefit of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir
    (Paxlovid) in those high-risk for severe COVID-19, whether vaccinated or >>> not (the original clinical trial studied the drug only among
    unvaccinated individuals). Even against the more immune-evasive Omicron
    variant, in those age 65 and above there was an 81% reduction in death
    and 67% reduction in hospitalization. There was no benefit for
    nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in those 40 to 64 years for protecting against
    severe disease. Molnupiravir, another oral antiviral, has fewer
    drug-drug interactions than nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, since it does not
    require a ritonavir booster. In a recent subset analysis from the
    MOVe-OUT study, molnupiravir demonstrated an 89% reduction in
    hospitalization or death among immune-compromised participants.

    These therapeutics are in robust supply. At the end of May, only around
    30% of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir doses ordered by the government had been
    used. After a White House initiative to transform testing sites into
    federally funded "test to treat" locations, more than 182,000
    prescriptions for oral antivirals were filled during the last week of
    May, and 40,000 pharmacies and other locations now have antiviral pills
    in stock. We need to ensure continued -- and equal -- access among all
    high-risk Americans.

    Monoclonal antibodies also remain in our treatment and prevention
    arsenal. Bebtelovimab remains a powerful option to prevent severe
    disease and hospitalization in high-risk patients, with persistent
    activity against BA.2.12.1. As EDs across the country return to peak
    pre-pandemic patient volume for other medical conditions, bebtelovimab
    is a great one-and-done option since it's given as an intravenous dose
    pushed over 30 seconds. For certain immunocompromised patients who are
    unable to mount a significant protective response from vaccines, a
    long-acting dual-monoclonal antibody can help. Tixagevimab co-packaged
    with cilgavimab (Evusheld) given as preexposure prophylaxis demonstrated >>> an impressive 82.8% relative risk reduction for all COVID-19 symptoms at >>> 6 months, with retained activity against subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

    What about treatment for long COVID? While an exact etiology remains
    elusive, one of its proposed mechanisms is a high viral load.
    Vaccination is highly protective against long COVID. For those with
    residual symptoms, some case studies have offered evidence that oral
    antivirals could reduce symptoms, so this must be studied further.

    On to the Next Phase

    We are certainly in a much stronger position against SARS-COV-2 than we
    have ever been. Vaccines continue to provide robust protection against
    severe illness and death. Therapeutics can keep high-risk patients out
    of the hospital. The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading. We
    now need to avoid backsliding and instead look toward better future
    COVID management.

    The next phase will require increasing trust in our public health
    system, updating vaccines for all, continued ease-of-access of
    therapeutics, new whole virus vaccines in the future, novel therapeutics >>> currently in development, and nasal vaccines. Let's remain vigilant and
    continue to move ahead.

    The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
    the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
    finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
    among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
    asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
    15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
    doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
    best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
    mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
    Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
    slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
    http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
    vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.

    Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
    ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.

    So how are you ?

    I am wonderfully hungry!

    While wonderfully hungry in the Holy Spirit, Who causes (Deuteronomy
    8:3) us to hunger, I note that you, Michael, are rapture ready (Luke
    17:37 means no COVID just as circling eagles don't have COVID) and
    pray (2 Chronicles 7:14) that our Everlasting (Isaiah 9:6) Father in
    Heaven continues to give us "much more" (Luke 11:13) Holy Spirit
    (Galatians 5:22-23) so that we'd have much more of His Help to always
    say/write that we're "wonderfully hungry" in **all** ways including
    especially caring to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12
    as shown by http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest ) with all glory ( http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD (aka HaShem, Elohim, Abba, DEO), in
    the name (John 16:23) of LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen.

    Laus DEO !

    Suggested further reading: https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/5EWtT4CwCOg/m/QjNF57xRBAAJ

    Shorter link:
    http://bit.ly/StatCOVID-19Test

    Be hungrier, which really is wonderfully healthier especially for
    diabetics and other heart disease patients:

    http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrew touts hunger (Luke 6:21a) with all glory
    ( http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD, Who causes us to hunger
    (Deuteronomy 8:3) when He blesses us right now (Luke 6:21a) thereby
    removing the http://tinyurl.com/HeartVAT from around the heart

    ...because we mindfully choose to openly care with our heart,

    HeartDoc Andrew <><
    --
    Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
    Cardiologist with an http://bit.ly/EternalMedicalLicense
    2024 & upwards non-partisan candidate for U.S. President: http://WonderfullyHungry.org
    and author of the 2PD-OMER Approach:
    http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrewCare
    which is the only **healthy** cure for the U.S. healthcare crisis

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