The number of scientists warming at least theoretically to, and willing to test, the idea of employing oral antisepsis to combating the COVID-19 pandemic has been growing further.
Alberto Zangrillo, Chief and Director of Intensive Care at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan on Italian state television: "The [test] swabs performed in the last ten days have results with an infinitesimal viral load from the quantitative point of view compared to the swabs performed on patients a month ago”.
While we are currently working on other urgent matters and have hardly any time to follow up on the the throat disinfection complex, let us - very briefly - make the following additional comments with regard to the study underway in Kentucky. If nothing else, they may serve as a mental check to the study investigators (who we will make aware of them, of course).
A clinical trial is now actively testing preventive throat disinfection / antisepsis to counter COVID-19 in hospital personnel. And a study confirming efficacy of one of the substances we mentioned as being effective against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro was published yesterday.
A group of researchers from the UK (Cardiff and Cambridge), the US (Denver, Colorado), Spain (Barcelona), and Canada (Ottawa) has now picked up the idea we have put forward almost exactly two months ago for preventive throat disinfection with virucidal agents that are known to be effective against coronaviruses and safe to use in the throat. The WHO should now even more seriously consider including it in its recommendations.
While in recent weeks we have been focused on establishing and comprehending as deeply as possible the immunological "big picture" in viral epidemics from so far only partly interconnected evidence in the specialist literature, in order to derive actionable recommendations, we briefly summarize what has emerged in terms of feedback as well as additional insight with regard to our first article since it appeared.
Intelligent if unconventional methods employed by researchers have likely enabled a more realistic view on the actual infection rate and the related questions of when herd immunity will be achieved and what the realistic death rate of COVID-19 actually is. Understanding the true dynamics of the pandemic is crucial to taking the most adequate policy decisions going forward.
At loico, we had planned to launch our operation with a relatively comprehensive suite of articles, often fairly ambitious, on which we are working concurrently. Due to the escalating Coronavirus crisis, we feel forced to abandon this roadmap and to immediately start contributing what we can to the amelioration of the situation and its eventual resolution.