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Here are the most challenging #COVID19 questions I got this week: 1/
1. When will life return to normal? Some answer this by looking at when we'll hit herd immunity. That's not how I think about it. I don't believe we'll reach herd immunity in the US in 2021 (vaccine hesitancy & escape mutations), but I do think we'll get normalcy by the fall. 2/
Coronavirus will eventually mirror influenza: The goal isn't to make it go away; the goal is give people the opportunity to get vaccinated. We've just accepted that there will be millions of influenza cases and tens of thousands of deaths every single year. At some point...3/
...we'll accept something similar with #COVID (assuming hospitals aren't overwhelmed). Life returns to normal once vaccines are widely available. It's about production, not herd immunity. 4/
2. Why aren't we using ivermectin? On Dec. 8, a physician appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security claiming ivermectin is a "miracle drug" for COVID and cited several international studies to back up the claim. Some are shocked and angered this isn't getting...5/
more attention. When I got this question, I was aware of one ivermectin trial in Argentina that was going to enroll 229 people:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT04425850?view=resultsBut
subsequently published results on nearly 1200 volunteers.
https://trialsitenews.com/argentinas-ivercar-ivermectin-carrageenan-study-shows-positive-results-targeting-covid-19/
There may be a good reason for this. 6/
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT04425850?view=resultsBut
subsequently published results on nearly 1200 volunteers.
https://trialsitenews.com/argentinas-ivercar-ivermectin-carrageenan-study-shows-positive-results-targeting-covid-19/
There may be a good reason for this. 6/
The jury's still out on ivermectin, but I need much more information before I change my practice. We don't use the drug for COVID in the U.S.; we'd only give it as part of a clinical trial. For some, that's not good enough. We're working on a more satisfying answer. 7/
3. What worries you? Many things! But mostly two things: 1) What this is doing to our kids and 2) That we'll let our collective guard down now that vaccines have arrived. 8/
4. What are you looking for with vaccine rollout? Waste. There's little room for error when dealing with subzero temps. How many vials will be compromised? I've seen 10% thrown around. That could mean hundreds of thousands of wasted vaccines. I hope that estimate is wrong. /end
