Canadian COVID-19 News

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

In the case of legally compulsory vaccinations, you can't opt out -- not unless you leave the country.

I guess you right. I reluctantly concede the point.

But we both know this is about being able to safely go cruising this summer so my sympathies are at an all time low.

[Midnight Son]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Been there, done that, rolled my eyes.

I like the term analyst though, make him and his ilk seem more like stock brokers and money managers ... just enough expertise that they don't go broke too often...

He teaches Nursing in a Northern England University and is interviewed quite often on DW the German Television Network, about Covid issues.

So look before you bark please.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Midnight Son

He teaches Nursing in a Northern England University and is interviewed quite often on DW the German Television Network, about Covid issues.

So look before you bark please.

Yada yada and he has a doctorate in Nursing and makes videos that people love to quibble with, and has the weirdest way of presenting his notes and as far as I'm concerned I am as like to take advice from him as I am from PewDiePie.

I do look.

[Midnight Son]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Yada yada and he has a doctorate in Nursing and makes videos that people love to quibble with, and has the weirdest way of presenting his notes and as far as I'm concerned I am as like to take advice from him as I am from PewDiePie.

I do look.

But don't comprehend.

You are now running down newhauls trapline. Have fun.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Yada yada and he [Dr. John Campbell, RN, PhD] has a doctorate in Nursing and makes videos that people love to quibble with, and has the weirdest way of presenting his notes and as far as I'm concerned I am as like to take advice from him as I am from PewDiePie...

Dr. John Campbell created a video [1] in which he claims to have demonstrated that Ivermectin has the same pharmacodynamic modality of action as the new Pfizer antiviral PF-07321332, which inhibits the 3CL main protease of SARS-Cov-2. In this video I address Dr. Campbell's misunderstandings, and show that the biochemical mechanism he claims is not well supported by data, that his interpretations are based on misundertandings of the literature, and that --- even if ivermectin inhibits the 3CL protease exactly as he describes in biochemical assays --- Ivermectin cannot achieve the corresponding pharmacodynamic effect because the highest possible concentration in the human body is several orders of magnitude too low.

Dr. Campbell's basic misunderstandings of the biochemistry, as well as his evident failure to grasp the differences between a biochemical effect and a pharmacodynamic effect, are consequential in a pandemic because of his enormous influence on this platform.

ERRATUM
There was a verbal slip-up when discussing Table 2 of the fourth paper when I mistakenly said in passing that remdesivir had the best predicted binding to 3CL protease according to Table 2. It does not: ivermectin has the best predcited binding of the compounds to 3CL protease (-7.7 kcal/mol compared to remdesivir's -7.1). I was going to make a joke that "In his defense, Dr. Campbell was accidentally correct about the relative order in this case" but I slipped up when making the larger point. To avoid any confusion, I'd deleted that second or two of video and apologise for the error. Dr. Campbell's misinterpretation of that table remains unchanged.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
04:23 Who am I to criticise Dr. Campbell?
07:53 Dr. Campbell's central claim [1]
09:10 The drugs
14:21 The target (SARS-Cov-2 3CL main protease)
19:38 Identification of SARS-CoV 2 3CL Protease Inhibitors by a Quantitative High-Throughput Screening (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/...)
34:23 Microscopic interactions between ivermectin and key human and viral proteins involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/artic...
44:47 Identification of 3-chymotrypsin like protease (3CLPro) inhibitors as potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents https://www.nature.com/articles/s4200...
1:01:30 Ilimaquinone (marine sponge metabolite) as a novel inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 key target proteins in comparison with suggested COVID-19 drugs: designing, docking and molecular dynamics simulation study https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/artic...
1:10:45 Exploring the binding efficacy of ivermectin against the key proteins of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis: an in silico approach https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/10...
1:13:50 Closing remarks

More ➥ https://youtu.be/H95VCYLBh-A

[1] Occurs at 07:53 ➥ https://youtu.be/H95VCYLBh-A

Dr. Campbell's Videos ➥ https://www.youtube.com/c/Campbellteaching

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

I guess you right. I reluctantly concede the point.

But we both know this is about being able to safely go cruising this summer so my sympathies are at an all time low.

You're so right, and I'm so with you. I just want to get back to my boat this year.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Midnight Son

But don't comprehend.

You are now running down newhauls trapline. Have fun.

Seriously you actively want people to turn to YouTube for the "truth" on a subject as broad and deep as this pandemic? If I want to find out what's the deal with Log4J or why the latest Space X blew up I totally go to YouTube and watch a synopsis. But I don't walk away thinking I know anything more than a supposed SME can dumb down and squeeze into the 20 minute video format. And who know just how educated the presenter is or what his agenda is? All I have is a briefest whiff of the issue.

But our egos always make fools of us don't they? There is a humorous trope in Universities that involves the undergraduate — having taken 40 hours of any given subject — spouting off like he was going to solve the world's ill in one brilliant stroke (see Good Will Hunting for a fictionalization of this —I've see it in real life). Sometime they grow out of it, sometimes they don't.

This stuff is complex. 80% of the people on these forums (and in the "real" world) just can't/won't wrap their head around that and so are just looking for the quick fix. They are like the supplicant going to the parish priest looking for the meaning of life...if that priest actually knew it I highly doubt he would be a lowly parish priest. Instead the priest does what he is good at and explains it some way the poor sod is capable of grasping and sends him away to contemplate his own ignorance.

But what of the other 20% (he says liberally making up statistics)? Some give facts as they see them and leave it up to us to recognize the depth of our cluelessness and some valiantly try to impart the, admittedly greater, knowledge they hold—of course they too often express that understanding as "fact" thus adding to the level of general misinformation. But a few accurate units of knowledge doesn't mean they—or any youtube/twitter/self-proclaimed virologist/generic expert — can correctly interpret what's going on out there any more than the parish priest. It's complex. Thousands and thousands of scientists from many, many disciplines complex.

I've got 6 years of studying renaissance drama under my belt, some of that at the graduate level, and I tell you it is with profound humility that I approach the topic of Shakespeare and Marlowe. The depths of what I don't know astound me and just catching up on the scholarship I have missed over the last 20 years would probably break me.

Dr. Campbell is not a virologist. He is not a sociologist. He is not an expert in international relations, internal medicine, supply-chain management, economics, city management or even bio-chemistry. He doesn't know how to make a vaccine, distribute it, budget it, or figure out how to get a scared and/or ignorant population to take it. He doesn't know the social and psychological factors that differentiate Canada from the US, or Britain from Australia and the unique political systems that each follows, and he sure as h*ll doesn't know what backwoods Africa or India is making of all this.

What he is, is a teacher. So he is trying. Unfortunately — unlike the ill-educated high school English teacher I had that harmlessly tried to convince us that Shakespeare thought all nuns were whores — he has a world wide audience and is frankly, to me, so far from harmless as to be an active danger to the public weal.

So ya. I do comprehend...at least that little bit. The rest I am, like the rest of, desperately struggling with. Rant over.

My tv financial analysts and actual life guru:

[N Coast Murray]

Ahhhh...researching beyond what search engines provide, logic, and the desire to find a path to compromise...how delightfully Canadian!

I recently read that only 5% of people go to the second page of a Google search. That's mind boggling. Something tells me Gord & Mac are in that 5%.

Keep it up!

[Midnight Son]

Mac, everyone can't be right 100%, but also they wont be wrong. I read your, and Gord's and Mike's posts, and enjoy. If you're looking for the 100%, unfortunately it wont be found.
Have a great day.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

Ahhhh...researching beyond what search engines provide, logic, and the desire to find a path to compromise...how delightfully Canadian!

I recently read that only 5% of people go to the second page of a Google search. That's mind boggling. Something tells me Gord & Mac are in that 5%.

Keep it up!

As with many endeavours, preparation can be the key, to excellent outcomes.

A well conceived Google search can return good results, in the first page, or two.
It’s often when one is lazy, in composing the search terms, that one ends up digging much deeper into the results.

I am reminded of Blaise Pascal, who, writing in "Lettres Provinciales", in 1657, said:
“I have made this [letter] longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.”

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

Ahhhh...researching beyond what search engines provide, logic, and the desire to find a path to compromise...how delightfully Canadian!

I recently read that only 5% of people go to the second page of a Google search. That's mind boggling. Something tells me Gord & Mac are in that 5%.

Keep it up!

WWW.TheEnd.com

[Montanan]

I'm An ICU Doctor In Rural Ohio. This Is The Horror I Face Every Day Due To COVID-19.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/im-icu-do...123001549.html

"Our country had traditionally prided itself on free will, freedom of choice, and autonomy. However, it is clear that these sacred values are being twisted and are keeping our nation in peril. . . . It is difficult to articulate the magnitude of frustration that this conundrum instills in us health care workers. The vaccinated have been repeatedly shown to experience much less sickness and death from COVID-19 than their unvaccinated counterparts. To highlight, since the widespread adoption of vaccination, for every 20 deaths from COVID-19, 18 (90%) are unvaccinated and two (10%) are vaccinated, and for every 50 hospital admissions attributable to COVID-19, 43 (86%) are unvaccinated and 7 (14%) are vaccinated. . . . Yet hospitals continue to exceed capacity, exhaustion of vital health care resources persist, and human lives are still being lost. Why? The answer is simple ― albeit controversial and politically heated: Not enough Americans have been vaccinated. Surprisingly, the paucity of vaccine uptake is due to unfounded vaccine skepticism and not from barriers that typically impede equitable access to health care, like cost, supply, or insurance restrictions.
. . .
So, as another wave of this pandemic is upon us, health care workers again find themselves inundated with unprecedented levels of grueling and traumatic sickness, disability, and death ― most of which is entirely preventable. Unbeknownst to some, health care workers are not superhuman or robots, and are subject to human feelings and emotions just like everyone else. Never before have I endured such resentment and cynicism at unvaccinated patients and their reckless, selfish choices. Choices that enable this pandemic to propagate and destroy lives and families. Thus, it is only natural that throughout the country we are seeing widespread staffing shortages across all health care disciplines."

[JPA Cate]

From my point of view, and please forgive me for butting in on the Canadian thread, but....

It is that Omicron variant produces an extremely transmissible variant. It and subsequent variables are separate: we don't know what they will bring, yet.

And trying to cope with what is here now, it is hard to delegate resources to what may happen in the future.

So, at the very moment that we want to control *things*, they are evolving at their own rate.

Sacre' bleu! Scary, eh?

Now, I am a person who has two (at least) lung conditions with which to deal during this. I am isolating. I am glad for CF, because I get little other contact with people I like and know. I am double vaxxed and boosted. And I wait, because, I think it inevitable that Omicron will eventually get around all the corners and get to me, and then what will happen will happen. It is out of my hands, and much as I might strive for control, I have none.

Let me just wish good health to those in a similar situation to me, and everybody else, as well, and really keep on trying to find pleasure in a suddenly more dangerous life.

Ann

[Lake-Effect]

Hi Ann, sounds like you've taken, and are taking all reasonable precautions, and the longer you can avoid infection, the better the odds that you won't catch it, or that vaccination and available treatments will increase everyone's chances of not getting seriously ill. I still feel we are getting close to the end of the pandemic... it's always darkest before the dawn, and so on. Stay safe everyone, and look forward to better days. We're currently buying groceries for a close friend who's isolating because of an exposure.

A very interesting overview and comparison of the hospital COVID situation in Canada and the US, highlighting the weaknesses in each. My God, nurses are real heroes here. (Doctors too, but they have more agency to quit or move). Like the FDNY firefighters on 9/11...except that this fire has been going for almost 2 years.

[Mike OReilly]

Ann, it's good to hear you and Jim are staying safe and healthy through all this. I do think it's almost inevitable that all of us are going to become infected with the virus at some point. So far three of my nephew/nieces have come down with it. They are in their 30s, and have all done fine. No one in my generation of the family has been struck yet, probably because we're more cautious, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

All we can do is what you've done. We can take all the necessary precautions, but at some point we're all going to come in contact with the bug. I think it will just be part of our normal life soon.

LE, interesting article on healthcare comparisons. As it mentions, Canada's system is far from tops when it comes to metrics like beds and nurses per capita. Over my time as a medical journalist from the early 1990s on I recorded a continual decline in these kinds of numbers. I watched the system become more streamlined and more "business-like" in its approach to resources. We shifted from a system which looked after patients, to one where we have "consumers" of healthcare driving the system.

I don't mean to imply one way is better than the other, but it does mean we've made our systems more efficient. There is little under-utilization in our systems, which is another way of saying there is little ability to respond to the unexpected or unplanned. And it also means, as the story says, that we continually ration services and staffing in an effort to run at maximum efficiency.