At the risk of badgering someone with long past issues of earlier this week and last week, I will post below. Take notice of the last paragraph and my oversight of this week’s NR. If true, we might be cleared for all Canadian sites now.

Last week, I listened to a doctor from the University of Alberta where we just received Ethics Board approval for a trial this week interviewed on the radio about COVID-19 treatment. This doctor stated that there is really no treatment out there other than vaccines. He did then concede that there is Remdesivir but we know the cost barrier there. An article from last October that I read lists the cost per course of treatment at $3120 (I imagine USD). Also, that article gave a link to an NIH study that found that Remdesivir reduced hospital stays from 15 to 11 days which was a statistical (p<0.001) improvement over placebo. It also stated that there was no statistical improvement in mortality rates. Mortality rates improved from 11.6% to 8.0% (p<0.059). My worry here is that a supposed expert in the area and from an institution looking into one possible treatment states that there is nothing out there. Does he just state this because it isn’t approved yet or because of his lack of knowledge. We also know of the immense portion of the issue that is inflammation and there are anti-inflammatory drugs out there so hard to say there is nothing. There might not be a miracle cure or not even a good treatment yet but there are some treatments. Listening to this doctor, I came away with a real doomsday message from him and wondered why he was taking this tack and also if this sort of attitude has been slowing us down among academics and bureaucrats.

Also, I reread the U of A approval NR and noticed something. It was not mentioned in the article itself and DM’s presentation comment that he hoped they would have approval for the others soon supported the idea of Edmonton only but the title actually stated “For Canadian Sites”. As discussion went lately, it would appear that I was not the only one that missed this. It wasn’t a greatly worded NR to not mention it in the article itself. Anyway, if the U of A was able to approve it for all Canadian sites that might get them all started soon if we can get one started.