The COVID Advisor

Most people with COVID-19 will experience a mild illness, and they’ll be able to take care of themselves at home. But some—especially those with underlying health conditions —could benefit from one of several COVID-19 treatments. Some of these are available in pill form and others are given intravenously or by injection—and all of them must be prescribed by a health care provider. In this article, we will do a roundup and cover 2 popular anti-viral treatments i.e. Paxlovid and Monoclonal Antibodies. Paxlovid Paxlovid is Pfizer’s brand name for an antiviral oral medication (in pill form) that combines two generic drugs, nirmatrelvir and ritonavir. It was the first COVID-19 antiviral pill to receive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization (EUA) in December 2021, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has prioritized its use over other treatments for eligible patients. It is meant for people who have a current COVID-19 ...

A seaweed extract called iota-carrageenan, when administered by   nasal spray , has shown promise for a quick and easy way to fight COVID by trapping much of the virus before it can take hold in our bodies.  What does research show about this approach, and does it have the potential for other anti-COVID measures? Carrageenan Might Prevent Virus From Taking Hold in Nose Extracted from edible seaweed,  carrageenan  comes in three forms: Iota, Kappa, and Lamda. It’s used in cooking to thicken foods and has been added to processed foods since the 1950s. Later,  research  found this plant extract also has potent effects against the common cold virus in laboratory testing. More recently, scientists looked at  iota-carrageenan  combined with saline solution in a nasal spray to discover it effectively inhibited COVID-19 infection. Researchers noted that the mixture is already approved for human use in Argentina to help prevent colds and flu. “The mechanis...

Since the COVID variant omicron emerged in late 2021, it has rapidly evolved into multiple subvariants . One subvariant, BF.7, has recently been identified as the main variant spreading in Beijing , and is contributing to a wider surge of COVID infections in China. But what is this new variant, and should we be worried? Although reports from China about this variant’s characteristics are concerning, it doesn’t appear to be growing too much elsewhere in the world. Here’s what we know. BF.7, short for BA.5.2.1.7, is a sub-lineage of the omicron variant BA.5. Reports from China indicate BF.7 has  the strongest infection ability  out of the omicron subvariants in the country, being quicker to transmit than other variants, having a shorter incubation period, and with greater capacity to infect people who have had a previous COVID infection, or been vaccinated, or both. To put this into context, BF.7 is believed to have an R0, or basic reproduction number,  of 10 to 18.6 . Thi...

To this day, the Infectious Disease Society of America and the National Institutes of Health Guidelines do not advise prehospital use of corticosteroids in COVID-19 illness. Conversely oral and or nebulized steroids have been a part of the FLCCC and McCullough protocols since 2020. Justification for early steroids sadly comes from an autopsy study of fatal cases by Kato et al who evaluated 61 cases from the NIH, Cornell, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Kato T, Asakura T, Edwards CE, Dang H, Mikami Y, Okuda K, Chen G, Sun L, Gilmore RC, Hawkins P, De la Cruz G, Cooley MR, Bailey AB, Hewitt SM, Chertow DS, Borczuk AC, Salvatore S, Martinez FJ, Thorne LB, Askin FB, Ehre C, Randell SH, O'Neal WK, Baric RS, Boucher RC. Prevalence and Mechanisms of Mucus Accumulation in COVID-19 Lung Disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022 Dec 1;206(11):1336-1352. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202111-2606OC. PMID: 35816430.n... The bottom line is that after 20 days, SARS-CoV-2 is gone from the ...