MAHER's guest: Dr David KATZ

[UTUSN]

&t=204s

[Hoyt]

1. Well worth watching. Somewhat different take on where we go from here on CV19.

[UTUSN]

2. Yea, I didn't want to O.P. it with comment. "Not a (Faux) type" but he had to go there

to find a venue.

[applegrove]

3. I still think the hundreds of all-ready-in-use meds being tested for use

against coronavirus are still worth waiting for. We already have results for hydroxychloroquine (no). It should not take long for the others to be tested. God knows there are enough sick people around the world to test them on.

[UTUSN]

5. I need to digest more.

[applegrove]

7. al-ready-in-use, and approved for other ailments/illnesses meds/drugs, hundreds, are

being tested to see if they are at all effective for reducing coronavirus symptoms or fully treating the illness. There are so many sick with COVID that they can run hundreds of studies around the world at the same time.

Like how hydroxychloroquine was already in use for lupus and malaria so it did not have to go through vigurous drug trials to see if it was safe for humans before they could test to see if it was effective against COVID-19. It tested bad for COVID within months (feb march april-how long the trial was i do not know but only a few months?) and was deadly in high doses. So that treatment is in the dump this week.

But there are hundreds more being tested right now. If one of them proves effective against the symptoms of coronavirus then we could then go to less social distancing as there would be a treatment for those vulnerable populations who would most be at risk if things were opened up like sweeden.

Why not do what we are doing around the world, only opening things up if the number of covid cases are down, until a few more months have passed and hundreds of meds have been tested to see if they would be a tool to lessen the effects of coronavirus on those with severe symptoms including lessening death?

Then it could be managed, like HIV is today, until a vaccine is found in 18 months (if they find a vaccine for COVID-19 which is not a given).

[UTUSN]

9. Bill GATES of funding a (dozen?) trials along what you're saying?

[applegrove]

10. I don't know what Gates is funding. But there are trials going on around the world.

[orwell]

4. The first statement by Dr. Katz is wrong...

...by flattening the curve you avoid overloading the medical system which is the difference in the severe case death rate by a factor of three or four. I stopped listening after that.

You do lengthen out the virus contagion period, but that also buys you time to work on therapeutics.

For such a credentialed doctor, I'm surprised he doesn't know this.

I suspect another motive here.

BTW - Maher truly sucks.

[UTUSN]

6. I'm not versed to defend Dr; am able to like MAHER except for the frustrating 10% Libertarian part.

So just with my Lay type sense, hearing all of it, made sense to me. So I can't discuss. What I like about MAHER, calls as he sees it, and I can hear out criticism of my side, and I like his take on organized religion. And by my taste, he's funny.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. He had me at Thomas Friedman agrees with him.

I don’t want my public health advocates discussing economics unless it’s in reference to expanding the social safety net to save the lives he feels will be lost due to economics.

He seems to be ok with sacrificing covid victims to help the economics. That’s not the type of doctor I want at my bedside.

[LeftInTX]

11. Locally they are approaching it from a "public health perspective"

Do we have enough hospital beds? Do we have enough ventilators? Every night our county judge and mayor give those capacity reports.

I live in a metro region of 2.840 million. The amount of people currently hospitalized for COVID 19 is 63. Of course, because it is so contagious the amount of resources available are not at face value. Using an ICU room/hospital bed for COVID is much different than using an ICU for trauma in terms of availability of resources. Currently in Texas, there are 1,674 confirmed cases in hospitals.

For our region:

Regional Population - 2,840,955 (300,000 rural)
Total Staffed Hospital Beds - 5,701
Available Hospital Beds - 2,061
Available ICU Beds - 303
Available Ventilators - 889
Lab-Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently In Hospital - 63

This is the main reason to flatten the curve. You want those resources available. Unfortunately, this is what "public health" is...

Of course, it would be great if we could get a vaccine. It would be great if we get more treatments. Great if we could get more testing..(Thanks Trump )


I read that docs are learning that positioning patients even with low O2 sats is working better than ventilators in many cases. (A lost art???..most of the people that it works for are younger..and that makes sense...for some reason they have severe distress, yet it the old tradition of repositioning seems to have good results with this group) So flattening the curve allows this type of information to be discovered and shared.

I personally tend to believe exposure to corona virus results in immunity for long enough to get us through this pandemic. Others may not share this opinion. I don't have scientific proof, it's just my experience with flu and other diseases.

[Hoyt]

12. You missed point, where do we go from here. He's basically correct "IF ALL YOU DO is flatten curve,

you just change the date of death."

All we've done so far is keep from overloading the system. That's a good thing, because clearly there would have been deaths due to not even being able to get patients into a hospital.

But, he's saying -- that absent overload -- we are just spreading the infections and resultant deaths out over a longer period. I think that is essentially true, in fact I think "experts" have said that in the past.

[orwell]

13. I didn't miss the point...

...a lower death rate by not overloading the medical system lowers overall deaths, no matter how long the period is.

In other words "IF ALL YOU DO" is a meaningless statement because flattening the curve carries with it a lower death rate. So it is not "ALL YOU DO".