Coronavirus Hysteria

The Novel Coronavirus SARS-COV-2, which is what causes the COVID-19 disease, has dominated our lives and transformed our society in the months since the pandemic took hold in the United States in march.  After putting life on hold in so many ways for the last several months, things were starting to improve, but then numbers started to climb again.

Illinois Governor Pritzker put the entire state back on tier 3 despite the number of severe cases being isolated to certain areas and demographic groups. Is it necessary?

We know the virus is dangerous, especially to the elderly and those with certain medical conditions. It is critical that we protect those people, and part of doing so requires limiting the spread.

Masks

Yes, most masks won't protect you very well, but mostly they are worn to protect others if you are sick, to help avoid spreading it to others where it will eventually reach someone at high risk.  Also, people are contagious if they are presymptomatic and can spread the virus in aerosolized form without knowing they are already infected, if they don't wear a mask. So wear a mask, please!

The virus has been compared to the flu, and in many ways it is similar.  However, it is a different type of virus, of a class similar to the common cold. That means it is more contagious and more difficult to treat. It also has an unusual symptom of causing temporarily loss of taste and/or smell. 

Treatments

Early on, hydrochloroquine was suggested as a miracle cure based on the results of a couple of doctors who said they had treated hundreds of patients without mortality.  However, once President Trump suggested it was an effective treatment, it became a political issue. Some criticized the lack of a double-blind study. but who would want to give a placebo to someone needing treatment?

However, there are risks involved with hydorchloroquine including risk of heart rhythm problems (FDA) so it is best to look for other treatments and let the hospitals evaluate when it is appropriate to use it.

That sounds great, but by the time patients are hospitalized, it is too late to be effective (NIH).

It is also interesting that newer studies seem to be showing it isn't as effective as initially believed.  An article in The Lancet Rheumatology journal (Hydroxychloroquine in the prevention of COVID-19 mortality), points out:

"Early on in the pandemic, hydroxychloroquine was suggested as a possible prevention method or treatment for COVID-19, given evidence of in-vitro inhibition of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), propelling this mainstay treatment of rheumatic diseases to prominence and controversy. However, multiple high-quality studies subsequently showed no benefit of hydroxychloroquine use as post-exposure prophylaxis or as a COVID-19 treatment."

So, what should you do if you come down with COVID-19 after exposure? Let's take a look at what they say at Web MD:

"The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are a fever, coughing, and breathing problems. Unless you have severe symptoms, you can most likely treat them at home, the way you would for a cold or the flu. Most people recover from COVID-19 without the need for hospital care. Call your doctor to ask about whether you should stay home or get medical care in person."

All things considered, it doesn't appear that we need to shut down businesses, cripple our economy, and ruin the livelihoods of so many people.  We just need people to wear masks until the vaccine is distributed.  For that matter any with high risk should be able to buy N-95 masks, if not now, soon, which will protect themselves when out.  We could even provide those to people that need them with a government subsidy at a lower cost to our economy than further restrictions on business activity. 

Vaccines

There are currently two vaccines set for likely approval in the near future, one from Pfizer and one from Moderna.  Some people don't want to take any vaccine, while others are wary of a vaccine developed on an accelerated timeline.  

Both of the current candidate vaccines on the verge of approval use a new type of approach to vaccines involving messenger RNA that causes creation of a protein that train the body's immune system to recognize the SARS Coronavirus 2 if infected, allowing the body to ramp up an immune response quickly if exposed.  Since it does not involve using a killed or weakened virus as other vaccines, there is no risk of contracting COVID-19 from vaccination, and side effects are largely mild.  The phase 3 studies have shown the vaccines to be safe and over 90% effective. In fact, I personally participated in the Pfizer vaccine phase 3 trial and had no issues.

The vaccines do require cold storage and careful handling.  The Moderna vaccine requires -20° F storage, while the Pfizer vaccine requires -70° F storage.  Those extreme conditions are part of the effort to ensure safe storage.  There isn't time to do long term studies of efficacy after storage at more moderate temperatures, so in an abundance of caution, the vaccines are going to initially be treated as having a short shelf life and extreme storage conditions.

That means that the Pfizer vaccine will probably be distributed first to hospitals and then to Universities where the conditions are suitable for proper storage, as well as having concentrations of people who can come to a central location for two rounds of vaccination.  The Moderna vaccine can be stored at normal deep-freeze temperatures with short term transport using dry ice, so that can be distributed to other medical facilities, first response workers, and others in higher risk groups.  The mRNA type of vaccine can also be produced more quickly than a traditional vaccine.  Pfizer is preparing to have 100 million doses ready once approved, and Moderna will initially have about 50 million doses.  Additional production can continue at a rapid pace, which is good, because there are a lot of people that will need vaccinated.

There are some people that will refuse a vaccine despite all the safety measures.  While I find that somewhat baffling, I respect anyone's decision to do so. However, anyone not taking the vaccine should avoid contact with higher risk people unless wearing a mask and/or having a negative test after a quarantine period prior to contact.

Conclusion

If we could get everyone nationwide to quarantine and also wear masks when out, for 21 days with full cooperation, we could end all this. Anyone who was exposed would have shown symptoms after 14 days and could get tested to confirm whether this particular virus is present. After that, if any that tested positive but only had mild symptoms would wear a mask in public and avoid contact with others until they test negative, we  would have it under control..

However, this is America,  and our desire to exercise our personal rights often overrides our concern for the public good.

We are called as Christians to do what is right not for salvation but in gratitude to our Savior and obedience to our Lord. Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves, so that is what we should do, not because the government told us to, but because we are showing our love for others.