COVID-19 The Beginning of the End

“Results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-steroid-idUSKBN23N1VP

Let me repeat: Reduced death rates by a third in severely ill COVID patients!

Here’s why I think this is extremely important news:

As early as March, some medical professionals were starting to argue that Covid-19 is a vascular disease– not a respiratory one (patients displayed symptoms more common in Altitude Sickness rather than Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome). "COVID-19 is more than a lung infection. It affects the vasculature of the lungs and other organs and has a high thrombosis risk with acute life-threatening events that require adequate treatment with anticoagulants based on laboratory monitoring with appropriate imaging tests as required." -Radiological Society of North America, April 23, 2020.

Physicians have observed that many Covid-19 patients have normal lung function, yet their blood is not adequately oxygenated. This may explain why the use of ventilators fails to save so many patients (and perhaps even contribute to death). In fact, a group of physicians submitted a letter (published March 30th in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine) calling on doctors to avoid using invasive mechanical ventilation as this potentially subjects patients to unnecessary treatment which can be traumatic to lung tissue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9GYTc53r2o

Steroids (such as dexamethasone) are commonly used to tread breathing disorders such as asthma,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and even tuberculosis https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325666). However, The World Health Organization(WHO) has all along recommended against the use of steroids to treat COVID-19. Likewise, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) has suggested that people who take the class of steroid hormones may be more likely to contract COVID-19 and, if they do, are more likely to have severe symptoms.

The study results announced today could lead to a dramatic improvement in COVID-19 treatment regimens and a further (and perhaps dramatic) decline in the Infection Mortality Rates of the virus. Is this the beginning of the end of COVID-19 as a deadly disease? Can we live with it like we live other diseases? Can the economy reopen quickly and grow back to pre-pandemic levels sooner than thought? I think there is a good chance!