Who's talking nonsense about Covid-19? Some usual suspects, and some surprising ones

More than 200 delegates have already registered for the Summer Webinar of the National Pharmaceutical Congress: "Pharma's Purpose, People & Process Post-Covid. Who Will Thrive? Who Will Be Left Behind?" Featured panellists are Ronnie Miller, Hoffman-La Roche; Mike Egli, Aspen Healthcare Canada; Claude Perron, Amicus Therapeutics; Danielle Portnik, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals; Peter Brenders, Kontollo Health [lead panellist]; Mitch Shannon, Chronicle Companies [host.] Mark the date of Tuesday, June 23, 11:00 to noon (EDT.) Registration is free. Space is limited. Sign up here.

⇒ Issue #57
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 06/18: 101,491*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 06/18: 8,312*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 06/18: 8,359,869*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 06/18: 449,273*

June 18, 2020 — Good morning, CurveFlatteners. It's Mitch Shannon at the keyboard this Thursday, coming to you from the intersection of Lansdowne and Pape (where there's an outstanding view of Crazy Hy's Video Warehouse.)

The roster of sources you can't trust when seeking advice on Covid-19 has just been updated, with some surprising inclusions. You'd take for granted that the White House would land on the list, after the U.S. President instructed his followers to self-medicate with a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine and household bleach (see DCF passim.) Less predictably, two of the world's elite peer-reviewed scientific journals have evidently just sullied their reputations.

The Lancet, established in 1823, recently retracted an article that concluded the agent poses health risks and no evidence of efficacy. The New England Journal of Medicine, founded in 1812, followed suit with a similar retraction. Both published articles were based on data analyzed by Surgisphere, a Chicago contract research organization. Australian researcher Dr. Steven Tong tells Science magazine the retractions invoke “a mix of frustration and anger… [and] a feeling that our system in research has let us all down, from the authors of the papers, obviously, thorough to the peer reviewers and up to the journal editors. They’ve all done a great disservice to the research world.”

No comprehensive roster of Those Proclaiming Utter Nonsense on Covid-19 would be complete, however, without the presence of our old friend Pastor Jim Bakker (pictured left), late of the "PTL Club." In case you lost track of the disgraced televangelist following his incarceration back in 1989, all you really need to know is that he's been busy in a Branson, Mo. television studio promoting colloidal silver as a means to "eliminate" Covid-19 "within 12 hours." Various state and local attorneys-general are insisting that he cease and desist misinforming patients, but Rev. Bakker's legal defence might be that he's in excellent company. After all, if the American head of state and the world's leading scientific journals can all be totally full of crap when it comes to Covid-19, why can't a humble man of the cloth?

COVID CHRONICLE 06/18/20

• Pharmacoeconomics is never the first term to come to mind in the context of a global pandemic, so this week's finding at Oxford University is bound to bring cheer to insurers and policy-makers alike. Researchers say the warhorse oral corticosteroid dexamethasone reduced inflammation in patients on assisted breathing and decreased the mortality rate for patients on ventilators by 35 per cent. The Rx provided no benefit to patients who were not on respiratory support. Said Oxford investigator Prof. Peter Horby, an infectious diseases specialist: “Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in Covid-19. The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment.” Cost of treatment is around a dollar a day. A potential longer-term drawback: steroids suppress the immune system, which could present problems during recovery.  
• UK researchers are accelerating studies of the role played by vitamin D deficiency in patients with Covid-19 infection. Public Health England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are reviewing evidence that the vitamin deficiency may be linked to acute respiratory tract infection among ethnicities including Afro-Caribbean and Asian people as well as the general population. Dr. Adrian Martineau of London's Queen Mary University of London tells the Guardian newspaper: “Vitamin D could almost be thought of as a designer drug for helping the body to handle viral respiratory infections. It boosts the ability of cells to kill and resist viruses and simultaneously dampens down harmful inflammation, which is one of the big problems with Covid.” 
• The excitement is mounting in Tulsa, Okla., where Pres. Donald Trump plans to fill the 19,000-seat BOK Centre with his political supporters this Saturday (06/20.) Yes, his re-election campaign staff is aware there's a pandemic, and, yes, local health authorities are rightly terrified at the thought of screaming partisans at close quarters spraying spittle on each other. Among the administration officials who plan to be nowhere within 24 hours from Tulsa* is Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, 79, Washington's advisor on infectious disease. He tells the Daily Beast web site that when it comes to rallies, “outside is better than inside; no crowd is better than crowd [and] crowd is better than big crowd.” Any chance the doctor might change his mind? “I’m in a high-risk category. Personally, I would not. Of course not.”

* see "Right Now We Are Listening To..."


STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

Our Jeremy Visser is interviewing Canadian experts regarding an investigation into cancer registry data that shows a higher incidence of men with melanoma of the head, neck, and trunk than women, but lower rates on the lower limbs. 


RIGHT NOW WE ARE LISTENING TO... 

Spirited debate might ensue over which version of the Hal David and Bert Bacharach classic "24 Hours From Tulsa" is the preferred track. The late Gene Pitney had the first hit, followed quickly by Dusty Springfield's distinctive rendition. The O'Kaysions, favourites on the Soul Train TV show, had a run at it later, and many foreign-language efforts have ensued. (I'm especially intrigued by Östen Warnerbring's Swedish warbling of "15 minuter från Eslöv.") However, let's shut down any prolonged discussion by declaring that the 1966 version by Canada's Ian & Sylvia is simply the ne plus ultra. The Canada connection to the song is possibly enhanced by Bacharach's having studied as an undergraduate at McGill University. We'll dedicate this ditty to the hearty gang planning to head over to the BOK Centre on Saturday night. Keep washing your hands, buckaroos. And you folks remember to watch out for those pesky bathroom aerosols, now.

TONIGHT WE ARE COOKING...

I've got an unusual yearning for the Tomato Corn Tortilla soup featured at the Chili's restaurant chain. This recipe foregoes the trademark corn kernels, but any can of Green Giant Niblets should remedy that oversight. It's supposed to be topped with some tortilla chips, which this recipe doesn't mention, either. Fortunately, there should be a fresh bag of Neal Brothers downstairs, unless that woman I'm in quarantine with found another use for it. 

LATER WE'RE READING...

The 1958-77 letters of cartoonist R. Crumb, "Your Vigor For Life Appalls Me" (Fantagraphics Books, US$19.95.) If you're curious about how struggling midwestern illustrator Robert Crumb became the marquee attraction of Zap Comix and hence a leading 20th Century cultural influence, here's all the epistolary evidence.


HOW IS YOUR WEEK GOING?

What have you been up to today? Please let us know by making use of the comments section at the Daily CurveFlattener, or feel free to check in via LinkedIn, email, or your choice of connector. And do pass this newsletter along to your colleagues.

That's it. Stay in touch, stay safe and enjoy your Thursday. John Evans will be here tomorrow for your weekend update.