Anthony S. Fauci, MD returns to JAMA’s Q&A series to discuss the latest developments in the COVID-19 pandemic, including the continued importance of nonpharmaceutical interventions (masking, handwashing, physical distancing) for managing rising case numbers in the US and globally.
Recorded October 28, 2020.
Topics discussed in this interview: 0:00 Introduction 0:20 NAM Presidential Citation for Exemplary Leadership 1:19 COVID-19 numbers and excess deaths 4:05 National masking mandate 5:55 How to get people to accept masking 7:07 Herd Immunity and the Great Barrington Declaration 9:51 The holidays and airplane travel 13:44 Therapies update 17:54 Vaccines update 20:08 Vaccine distribution 22:00 Vaccine safety 24:42 How Australia has dealt with COVID-19 spikes 27:00 Acknowledgements and baseball
NYU Langone’s Kimmel Pavilion is home to the region’s newest and most technologically sophisticated neurosurgery suite. Designed to optimize patient care, our facilities are just one reason U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” ranks NYU Langone among the top 10 hospitals in the country for neurology and neurosurgery.
The Johns Hopkins Musculoskeletal Center aims to streamline and improve access for diagnosis and treatment of conditions affecting muscles, bones and connective tissues. Each of the center’s locations feature a diverse group of physicians, therapists, and advanced practitioners who work together to bring you the right treatment at the right time.
Dr. Stacey Rizza, an Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist, discusses the various ways COVID-19 is diagnosed and treated.
COVID-19 can be diagnosed several ways when looking for active infection.
“The most common way that testing is done is with a swab into the nose or into the nasal pharyngeal area,” says Dr. Stacey Rizza, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert.
“This polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is essentially a test looking for the genetic material of the virus.” If it’s positive, it means that person is infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
COMMENTARY:
Dr. Stacey Rizza from Mayo Clinic gave the standard Academic recommendations for Covid Testing and treatment. I will comment on how this differs from the testing recommendations of Dr. Michael Mina from the Chan school at Harvard and the actual treatment given to Donald Trump as we speak.
I agree with the latter recommendations, and route that I would opt for, were I to catch Covid 19. TESTING, if it is to be Epidemiologically effective should offer results that are rapidly available so as to reduce spreading of the virus and treatment delay. One trouble with PCR- based tests is that they are slow. Another trouble, according to Dr. Mina, is that if they run for 40 cycles for maximum sensitivity, they may pick up viral shedding that is too minor to be infective, and may cause unnecessary precautions, such as quarantining. If they run for 35 or even 30 cycles to show only infective, actionable cases, they take several days, and even then labs do not usually report the number of cycles run, but only yes or no, positive or negative.
The RAPID TESTS detect viral protein are available within hours. They are less sensitive, but in Dr. Mina’s view, this can be a virtue, since only definitely infected patients are identified. They are cheaper, and can even be done on site. Frequent testing more than makes up for decreased sensitivity. Most tests currently available use only specimens from nasal swabs, which are uncomfortable.
SALIVA is almost as sensitive, and has one additional virtue, when it comes to testing school children. If school children are organized into learning “pods”, They can all spit into a common collector, and the pod tested preemptively, at least twice weekly. If positive The entire pod is individually tested to find who is positive. Of course if a full 20 kids are in a pod, The sensitivity of the protein test may be insufficient for positive to survive a 20-fold dilution, but this can be empirically worked out. Twice weekly testing vs. every other week is much better for reducing the number of the pod members infected at time of discovery, as the NYT has illustrated.
TREATMENT given to Donald Trump has so far consisted of more than Remdesivir. He is also receiving Corticosteroids, plus an experimental double antibody mixture, derived from both Covid Convalescent serum, and monoclonal antibodies from a “humanized” murine source. The antibodies should theoretically be given early. The corticosteroids are generally not given until a bit later, but with the reported drop in O2 sats, he may be later in the disease than we are led to believe. To my knowledge, he is not receiving his tweeted Hydroxychloroquine- azithromycin combination.
If I were infected, at age 88, I would also like the antibody treatment, but most likely would not be allowed to get it.
The adaptive immune system is the “big gun”, later evolved, big brother of the innate immune system. The innate immune system acts a little like prejudice does in society. There is INSTANT RECOGNITION of a salient characteristic of many common disease-producing organisms, that are not present in the person being infected.
For instance, ENDOTOXIN is a lipopolysaccharide present in many bacteria, and is immediately recognized by Toll-like Receptors (TLR-4) on dendritic cells and macrophages. This triggers the Natural Killer (NK) cells to destroy the invader. The problem is that the innate immune system is indiscriminate, reacting against whole classes of molecules like a shotgun, and may produce unwanted damage. It also fails to recognize many genuine threats.
The ADAPTIVE immune system is more complex, discriminant, and SPECIFIC, but is SLOWER to gear up, and takes several days to be effective. Once engaged, however, it has a MEMORY for the infection that is SPECIFIC to the organism involved. This memory makes a SECOND EXPOSURE response much more rapid and comprehensive, AMPLIFIED as it is BY ANTIBODIES.
This first experience can be PROPHYLACTICALLY accomplished by VACCINES, so that the second, real exposure generates a RAPID PROTECTIVE RESPONSE. ATTENUATED vaccines are weakened, but LIVING ORGANISMS, and usually provide a more DURABLE immunity, but because they are living, they are more worrisome.
SPLIT-PRODUCT Vaccines are safer, but expose the immune system to a narrower range of pathogen markers, and may therefore be less Protective.. The FDA is very dedicated to SAFETY. Like all Bureaucracies, it is relatively independent of Political pressure, of which I am increasingly appreciative.
When the COVID-19 VACCINE, for example, is released to the general public, it WILL BE SAFE. The vaccine-deniers are mis-informed people who should not, in my opinion, be allowed to interfere with the HERD IMMUNITY that comes with having a supermajority of the population vaccinated.
As the world waits for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, we delve into how vaccines actually work. What are the different types of vaccine? How do they trigger and train the immune system, and what is the role of herd immunity?
Fatty liver disease is an increasingly common condition that currently affects a third of the population. The most common cause of the disease is obesity. Extra fat in your body from weight gain accumulates in your liver, causing it to swell. Eventually, the cells in your liver will be so overburdened that they die. New cells grow to replace them, but those cells also contain fat. As liver cells continue to die off and regrow rapidly, it causes scarring of the tissue surrounding the organ.
A growing number of hospitals are relying on remote ICUs to monitor and evaluate patients virtually, which helps to cope with an unrelenting COVID-19 caseload.
Empowering Patients Through Education And Telemedicine
Doctors Without Waiting Rooms 