Tag: Brian Procter

As cases surge once again, let’s do an update on COVID-19 treatment regimens, after all, you have likely been hearing about cures and treatments for months now, right?

Unfortunately, despite the “treatments” that some folks are pushing, there still isn’t a cure and there aren’t many treatments that are very effective for COVID-19.

Sure, the FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for some treatments, including monoclonal antibodies, convalescent plasma, remdesivir, bamlanivimab, baricitinib, and casirivimab and imdevimab, but many are either for patients with severe COVID-19, who are progressing to severe COVID-19, or they are in limited supply.

The Latest COVID-19 Treatment Regimens

But why wouldn’t you take over a dozen medicines if someone on the Internet tells you they read a bunch of well designed studies, he has the support of “America’s Frontline Doctors,” and he has his own statistics proving they work?

Because it all quickly falls apart if you really take a close look at what he is doing.

Consider Dr. Procter’s comparison of “death rates”…

He is trying to talk about the case fatality rate, but fails to mention any of the things that would cause his practice to have lower rates than the rest of the world, especially younger patients without many co-morbid conditions who aren’t yet hospitalized.

And the bias in his data aside, there is evidence that shows his recommended treatments don’t work.

• Zinc and COVID
• Dexamethasone and Hydroxychloroquine: Why Randomized Controlled Trials Matter
• No Benefit from Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19
• Boosting Your Immune System During a Pandemic
• An incomplete list of COVID-19 quackery
• Vitamin C, Patrick Holford, and dangerously misleading COVID-nonsense
• Where Are We With CBD
• Does Vitamin D Protect Against COVID-19?
• Mathematical analysis of “mathematical analysis” of a vitamin D COVID-19 trial
• Vitamin D: A rapid review of the evidence for treatment or prevention in COVID-19
• Vitamin D and Covid: A Review
• Vitamin D for coronavirus – not a cure or prevention for coronavirus, but…
• Myth Busters: Dietary Supplements and COVID-19
• Smoking, Vitamin D, and COVID-19

Some are even dangerous.

“The results of an observational study suggest that delayed viral clearance may be a concern in patients with non-severe COVID-19 who are receiving corticosteroids without antiviral drugs. Corticosteroids have also been associated with delayed viral clearance and/or worse clinical outcomes in patients with other viral respiratory infections.”

Therapeutic Management of Patients with COVID-19

So you should likely avoid these medications and unless you have a vitamin deficiency (zinc and vitamin C deficiency are very uncommon in developed countries), there is likely no good reason to take extra or high doses of vitamins to try and prevent or treat COVID-19.

You should certainly make sure you are getting plenty of all of these important nutrients, especially vitamin D, but understand that the kind of multi-drug COVID-19 treatment regimens you might see some doctors pushing are not proven, are not recommended, and likely won’t help you get better any faster.

And again, some are harmful!

So why do some people think they work?

“Garlic is a healthy food that may have some antimicrobial properties. However, there is no evidence from the current outbreak that eating garlic has protected people from the new coronavirus.”

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Mythbusters

Probably the same reason that some folks think that eating garlic works against COVID-19 – it is a highly variable disease and some people have very mild symptoms and get better quickly. If you are lucky enough to be one of these people and you tried some alternative treatment, you will likely associate your quick recovery with that treatment, even if it was just a coincidence.

“New symptoms are usually due to the virus rather than side effects of medications.”

Brian Procter, MD

And if you are really lucky when following one of these treatment regimens, you won’t suffer any side effects as you try to recover from your COVID-19 symptoms. Especially if you are being treated by a doctor who might ignore those side effects…

So what treatments can work?

• monoclonal antibodies, but except for sotrovimab, they don’t work well against the Omicon variant
• high-titer COVID-19 convalescent plasma, but only only for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 early in their disease course or hospitalized patients who have impaired humoral immunity
• paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) – an oral antiviral that was recently authorized and can be given twice a day for 5 days to those nonhospitalized patients who test positive for SARS-CoV-2,who are at least 12 years old with mild to moderate COVID-19 and who are at high risk of disease progression
• remdesivir – an IV medication that can be given once a day for 3 days to those nonhospitalized patients who test positive for SARS-CoV-2,who are at least 12 years old with mild to moderate COVID-19 and who are at high risk of disease progression
• molnupiravir – was recently authorized and can be given twice a day for 5 days to those nonhospitalized patients who test positive for SARS-CoV-2, who are at least 18 years old with mild to moderate COVID-19 and who are at high risk of disease progression
• dexamethasone – typically only used in hospitalized patients who require oxygen

And of course, better than getting sick and relying on these treatments, you should encourage everyone to get vaccinated and boosted!

More on COVID-19 Treatment Regimens

• Get All of Your COVID-19 Questions Answered
• The Truth About COVID-19 Vaccines
• 7 Things to Know About COVID-19
• Who Are the Real COVID-19 Experts?
• Why Do Some People Still Think Hydroxychloroquine Works for COVID-19?
• Why There is Still So Much COVID-19 Confusion
• Are One in a Billion Children Dying of COVID-19?
• What Do Anti-Maskers Have in Common With Anti-Vaxxers?
• NIH – Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Treatment Guidelines
• IDSA – Guidelines on the Treatment and Management of Patients with COVID-19
• CDC – Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
• FDA – Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers: Emergency Use Authorization for Paxlovid
• Dubious COVID-19 Treatments and Preventives
• COVID-19 – This is the Harm
• COVID-19 Schemes, Scams, and Misinformation
• WHO – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Mythbusters
• Combat COVID: Information about Clinical Trials
• CDC – Clinical Questions about COVID-19: Questions and Answers
• CDC – Information for Pediatric Healthcare Providers
• CDC – Evaluation and Management Considerations for Neonates At Risk for COVID-19
• CDC – Care for Breastfeeding Women
• FDA – Beware of Fraudulent Coronavirus Tests, Vaccines and Treatments
• COVID-19 Mortality Analyses
• WHO – Estimating mortality from COVID-19
• Oleander extract for COVID-19 – another moronic and useless treatment
• Evaluating coronavirus treatments like remdesivir – only science matters
• About that Danish mask study that “shows that masks don’t work”…
• The “false-positive PCR” problem is not a problem
• The Top COVID-19 Hucksters and Grifters…so far
• Of course, homeopaths are promoting homeopathy for COVID-19
• Chiropractors continue to make claims about chiropractic and COVID-19