Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Holy Toledo !

I just came across an interesting observational study that was carried out in two nursing homes in Yepes, Toledo, (Spain). Before I summarize the results of this study, let me point out that it was published initially on line in January, 2021, and then in April, 2021 in a medical journal.

(Pulm Pharmacol Ther. 2021 Apr; 67: 101989.

Published online 2021 Jan 16. doi: 10.1016/j.pupt.2021.101989)

Note that the online publication was about one year ago!

[For those of you who are interested in reading the study in its entirety, here is the reference:

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7833340/#!po=34.9057)

I realize that most of you are saying something like, “no way am I going to read or much less understand a lot of medical mumbo-jumbo, so just cut to the chase.” However, after I relate the results of this study to you, I predict that many of you will find yourself clicking on and then at least skimming this surprisingly well done observational study.

I want to emphasize that the authors point out that “this study has the limitations of all observational studies. Hypotheses inferred by observational studies must be subsequently confirmed by randomized controlled clinical trials that verify the causality of a certain effect. …

Therefore, randomized controlled trials and observational approaches are complementary, and not interchangeable.”

This spiel about randomized controlled trials sounds a lot like what Dr. Fauci has said many times. I find it interesting that although I read the complete article on PMC (US National Library of Medicine;National Institutes of Health), I do not think that there has been any randomized controlled trials to confirm this interesting and remarkably inexpensive treatment for COVID-19. To that I will merely say, “Hmmm!”

As background the authors point out that the pandemic began in Toledo at the beginning of March(2020) and increased rapidly in intensity in the following weeks. They emphasize that because of the gravity of the situation in Spain, many hospitals collapsed and had to restructure their Medical Services and Intensive Care Units (ICU) to facilitate the large volume of patients. Because of the dire medical situation in Spain, the physicians in these two relatively small rural nursing homes had to basically fend for themselves, and so they used basic, inexpensive therapies in a simple reproducible laddered protocol that depended on the severity of symptoms.

The basic initial treatment consisted of:

Antihistamines every 12 h, Azithromycin 500 mg orally every 24 h for 3 days to 6days depending on the response, acetaminophen 650 mg/6–8 h if there was pain or fever, and nasal washing and gargling with sodium bicarbonate water (half a glass of warm water with half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate).

If the symptoms increased in severity, additional antibiotics and prednisone were used.

The study population includes 84 elderly residents and 64 employees located in two separate nursing homes.

The results:

“All of our patients evolved satisfactorily and were recovered at the beginning of June (2020). No adverse effects were recorded in any patient and no one required hospital admission. At the end of June, 100% of the residents and almost half of the workers had positive serology for COVID-19, most of them with past infection.

After starting our treatment protocol we observed a mortality rate of 0%. The comparator retirement homes (in Albacete with 1084 patients),had a mortality rate of 28%.”

Wow! Incredible! Holy Toledo!

(I told you that you might well want to look at the entire study, if nothing else to insure that I am telling the truth, the whole, truth, and nothing but the truth.)

From my perspective, a few simple questions:

Why didn’t the NIH do a follow-up double blind controlled study?

Why weren’t the results of this study publicized?

Were the encouraging results of this small observational study purposely hidden from the general public? 

And if so … Why? 

Hmmm!

12/24/

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