Octopus Overlords

LATimes.com wrote:Nitric oxide is a gas with a pretty enviable medical resume.

Its discovery gave rise to a treatment that snatches thousands of “blue babies” — newborns starved of oxygen by a heart defect — from the jaws of death every year. Later, research into the gas’s knack for relaxing blood vessels led to the development of the world’s best-known little blue pill — the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.

In 1992, the journal Science named nitric oxide “molecule of the year.” And in 1998, UCLA pharmacologist Louis J. Ignarro shared a Nobel Prize in medicine for uncovering nitric oxide’s role as a “signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.”

Nitric oxide may not be done yet. The colorless, odorless gas, inhaled through a mask or even from a small “flute,” is now being tested as an experimental treatment for COVID-19. It may also prove helpful in protecting healthcare workers on the front line of the pandemic from getting sick.

At hospitals in Boston, Alabama, Louisiana, Sweden and Austria, researchers have launched a clinical trial to test inhaled nitric oxide in patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. The trial will test whether the gas can drive down the number of patients who end up needing breathing assistance from a mechanical ventilator, a piece of equipment that’s in critically short supply.

For about 30 minutes two or three times a day, study participants assigned to the trial’s active arm will inhale a high dose of nitric oxide through a mask. A control group will go without the gas.

In Italy, where the gas was used under more haphazard conditions, the treatment appeared to dramatically boost oxygen levels in the blood of COVID-19 patients, said Dr. Lorenzo Berra, the critical-care specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who is leading the new trial. But it’ll take more rigorous testing to clarify how much nitric oxide helps, he said.

A proposed second trial, still under scrutiny by a research panel at Massachusetts General Hospital, would enroll healthcare workers who are routinely exposed to patients with COVID-19 and are themselves at high risk of infection. For 10 to 15 minutes at the start and end of every shift, doctors and nurses would tug on a handheld device and inhale a high dose of nitric oxide.

tjg_marantz wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:01 am
They added about 40(?) nurses to our building

Jeff V wrote:

tjg_marantz wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:01 am
They added about 40(?) nurses to our building

Wow. I mean, I didn't know Saskatchewan had that many people.

Hopefully everyone is wearing hazmat suits at these meetings.

Kasey Chang wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 9:09 pm Hah, the career workshop webinar just got zoom bombed again. Except this time, I spotted the bomber first. It's a dead giveaway when he named himself "Sung Ting Wong" and he must have been trying to turn on the mike as he is like moving up in the participant display order. I told the co-host to watch out for him. Took him another 20 minutes to make his move, but within 2 seconds of him speaking up he got booted. Woohoo! Mission accomplished.

That inspired me to write this:

https://medium.com/@kschang777/how-to-s ... 918aa957ae

Jag wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:26 am
We are doing a family Zoom tonight. First time doing it. My son set it up with a private link. Is that good enough protection? It's only about 10 people.

Kasey Chang wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 9:09 pm Hah, the career workshop webinar just got zoom bombed again. Except this time, I spotted the bomber first. It's a dead giveaway when he named himself "Sung Ting Wong" and he must have been trying to turn on the mike as he is like moving up in the participant display order. I told the co-host to watch out for him. Took him another 20 minutes to make his move, but within 2 seconds of him speaking up he got booted. Woohoo! Mission accomplished.

That inspired me to write this:

https://medium.com/@kschang777/how-to-s ... 918aa957ae

Jaymon wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:39 am But in my own twist, I am putting a bit of a fold over along the top, and sliding a pipe cleaner in it, so the top can be shaped to fit snugly over the nose. That really improved it, much less air going out the cheekbones straight up.
The pipe cleaners are removable, so the masks can be machine washed.

pr0ner wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:58 pm On my walk in the park this afternoon, the majority of people weren't wearing masks. Of the few that were, one woman had the mask down around her chin while she was on the phone...why even bother at that point?

gameoverman wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:19 pm

pr0ner wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:58 pm On my walk in the park this afternoon, the majority of people weren't wearing masks. Of the few that were, one woman had the mask down around her chin while she was on the phone...why even bother at that point?

I don't wear a mask or gloves cause I'm a fatalist. One reason I can think of for people using masks that way is this:
The idea of the mask is it catches anything you cough out or sneeze, so you don't infect other people. It may also filter out droplets that others have coughed or sneezed out. If that's true, then how is a mask necessary once you are out in the park far from other people? Anything anyone coughs out will blow away or drift to the ground before it affects anyone else. In that woman's case, her phone is going to be crawling with germs but why should she care? If she's infected then it doesn't matter, if she's not infected then her germs on the phone aren't coronavirus germs. So either way she has nothing to worry about.

If she walked up to a group of people while leaving the mask down, now that would be dumb.

pr0ner wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:36 pmThere are a bunch of people out there (mainly amateur epidemiologists on Reddit) who are insistent that the virus hangs around in the air outdoors for an extended period of time, so if you are asymptomatic and cough, you can infect someone who walks by 30+ minutes later.

It's nuts.

dbt1949 wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:30 pm Our state just passed 1000 cases of Corvid with 18 dead.

gameoverman wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:34 pm That's why I'm a fatalist. If that's true, that it can just float around for awhile, then we're all doomed to be infected anyways.

gameoverman wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 3:51 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 9:09 pm
https://medium.com/@kschang777/how-to-s ... 918aa957ae

I liked your article, it was clear and to the point. The line "host should have co-host" is one I'd probably add an 'a' so it's "have a co-host".

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:24 pm

gameoverman wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:34 pm That's why I'm a fatalist. If that's true, that it can just float around for awhile, then we're all doomed to be infected anyways.

We're all doomed to be infected anyway. Well, a significant majority of us at least.

That's not what the masks are meant to avoid. They're meant to spread that eventuality out over months instead of creating a massive wave of people all sick at the same time. And the longer person X takes to catch it, the better the research and the better the treatment options.

ImLawBoy wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:21 pm Don't be a sociopath

gameoverman wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 1:33 am The fatalist remark was in the context of wearing a mask in a park. I walk, on the sidewalk, around my neighborhood for exercise. At no time am I within I'd say around 10 feet of anyone, most times not even that close. The closest I might be are people in a car driving by as I'm walking. Even if they had their window open, they are passing by at around 30 mph at least, and I'm on the sidewalk. I'm not infecting them just because I have no mask on. UNLESS this virus does in fact drift around constantly. In that case they are getting infected anyways, whether I wear a mask or not. Their car window is open, the virus is drifting in, it's not like I'm the only person in town.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 9:41 am

gameoverman wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 1:33 am The fatalist remark was in the context of wearing a mask in a park. I walk, on the sidewalk, around my neighborhood for exercise. At no time am I within I'd say around 10 feet of anyone, most times not even that close. The closest I might be are people in a car driving by as I'm walking. Even if they had their window open, they are passing by at around 30 mph at least, and I'm on the sidewalk. I'm not infecting them just because I have no mask on. UNLESS this virus does in fact drift around constantly. In that case they are getting infected anyways, whether I wear a mask or not. Their car window is open, the virus is drifting in, it's not like I'm the only person in town.

I went for a run on Tuesday and took a fairly quiet side street along the Metra tracks. There were a ton of people out, walking with kids, dogs, running, etc and even with running in the middle of the street, I was breathing heavy, as you do, and I could just imagine the expanding vapor trail behind me. I ended up cutting into the alleys and running my route that way.