A Dumb Covid Question-Are Sick Seniors in Care Homes Getting Remdesivir

[Ken Gigliotti]

Dumb Covid Question- Are Sick Seniors in Care Homes getting Remdesivir?
 With all the talk about vaccines ,what about the cure. President Trump had a remarkably recovery from Covid 19  and within a few days continued to campaign for president, hardly missing a beat. He was given Remdesivir injections  and steroids.  Are sick seniors in Canadian care homes hot-spots getting Remdesivir? People were recovering in a shorter time, is that a cure or  treatment? Is there a difference with so many fatalities.

[Fred Lum]

iirc, he was also given a monoclonal antibody. so he got a serious cocktail of drugs that regular plebes can't access.

[Warren Toda]

I don't think Remdesivir has been approved for use in Canada. The WHO has said it has little to no benefits to COVID-19 patients. However seniors and others are receiving dexamethasone, a corticosteroid used to fight inflammation. Canada's mortality rate for the virus has dropped over the past 10 months by about 55% and is currently about 2.7%. However the number of COVID-19 cases is now higher than earlier this year so the lower mortality rate is counteracted by the higher number of cases.

There are no cures for any virus. It may be semantics but vaccines don't cure viruses. There are drugs that fight infections caused by viruses. The new COVID-19 vaccines don't prevent you from getting SARS-CoV-2, and may not prevent you from being contagious, but they should prevent the virus from progressing to COVID-19.

The seasonal flu vaccine doesn't prevent you from catching the flu virus. It prevents the flu virus from making you sick. For comparison, most COVID-19 vaccines are at least 90% effective but seasonal flu vaccines are around 50% effective. Hopefully everyone is keeping up with the exciting FluWatch 2020