The Oxford study suggests that asthma preventers (containing budesonide which is also found in hay-fever nasal sprays) relieves covid symptoms and reduces the need for hopitalisation.
I strongly encourage people to read the above and to do some research. The internet is an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to help keeping in front of covid.
The asthma preventers are not available over-the-counter here in Australia but nasal spays for hay fever, which contain the same drug (budesonide), are available over the counter.
Asthma preventers that contain budesonide are not sold over the counter here either. There are a couple that help breathing (Primatene Mist) that are sold over the counter but they do not contain budesonide.
You know you're getting old when a recliner and a heating pad is your idea of a hot date!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Nice share Noel. I love the news I'm hearing with how well Australia has done with COVID. The people there actually listened and observed the safety protocols.
Yes. Both Videotrack and I are in the state (Victoria) that went through Australia's second wave.
When we reached 725 positive cases in one day, Victoria's Premier put us into Stage 4 lockdown. We had 4 months of lockdown at various stages: masks, social distancing, staying home except for 1 hour per day to exercise (going to medical appointments, essential shopping, etc. was permitted), curfew, not having guests at home, etc. For a while we were also only permitted to travel within a 5 kilometre radius.
The underlying principle was to keep people from mixing as much as possible so the virus had no where to go and no way to travel. While the restrictions might sound harsh, we have an exceptionally good state leader and around 99.9% of 6,000,000 people jumped on board with him and his Chief Health Officer. I had no doubt that I was in safe hands.
Wherever I went, people were happy and joking. I didn't run into any who complained. The mood was, "It is what it is so let's just do it and get on top of it." And we did. We're one of the few places in the world to tame covid. When we were up to 725 positives tests in day, I read somewhere a while back that Britain (or maybe France or Spain — I can't recall exactly which) had a similar number at the same time. They went one way and we went the other.
Today (Feb. 11) we have 10 cases. These came about from travellers who quarantine for 14 days before coming into the community. Prior to these quarantine cases, there was a time that we had no positive test results for something like 60 days. The Australian Govt. and State Govt. financially supported a lot of people through this.
Victoria was the only place in Australia that went through this second wave and extended lockdown, and we managed to stop covid breaking loose and creating an Australia-wide problem. Victoria is now predicted to lead Australia out of economic gloom. So the lockdown was actually a good thing.
Murdoch Media (lots of newspapers and SkyNews) did their best to undermine all we were doing to get on top of covid. They were relentless and insidious. Pretty much no one listened to them and we just travelled on following the lead of our premier.
When I look around the world, I see what could have been. It's awful.
Hmm... I said much, much more than I intended. If you get to this line, though, thank you for reading through it all.
All the best, Noel
P.S. Videotrack's experience may be different from mine. I can only talk about my area.
Nice share Noel. I love the news I'm hearing with how well Australia has done with COVID. The people there actually listened and observed the safety protocols.
Steve, the people in some countries are just better educated and more civilized. I will refrain from naming names...lol
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
Thanks Noel. The information is quite informative. The doctor in Texas would have been better received if he would have stuck to the facts.
Further investigation by the University Of Oxford and others have given good reason to believe there is value to the use of corticosteroid for reducing serious symptoms of Covid-19. I for one would be in favor of giving this approach a try on a limited basis. There can be serious side effects of using inhaled corticosteroids but they are not very common. So I don't see this as a very risky medication to try.
I think this medication would be very useful to try in Brazil for example where the death rate is very high and oxygen supplies are limited at best and hospitals are unable to treat everyone who needs treatment.
In the United States there has been an intense effort in the development of vaccines but less effort placed on treatment medications.
One of the problems in this country has been the polarization and politicising of the issue. Also well respected doctors have denied out of hand that this medication could work without any research to back up their position.
One needs to do their on research to the extent they can and be aware of the fact that several things have been suggested which have proven to have no value.
The problem with doing your own research here in the United States is that approximately 50% of the population cannot read at an 8th grade level.
The methods to control Covid-19 are well known as have been shown in China, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand to name a few.
We will be lucky if we can vaccinate our way out of this mess. That may or may not work. So possible solutions such as you are directing our attention too need to be explored.
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
I read Noel's post then I just remembered another Doctor saying that, so I went to post but Mario already said what I was going to say. As usual youtube decides what works and what doesn't by looking at one of the links:
I always cringe when I read about a totally untested treatment and the proponent uses words like “common sense” and “intuitive” to explain the rationale for the treatment.
I wonder if the inhalers create a dependency on them?
When I was young, I had a friend who was addicted to Afrin. If he quit spraying it in his nose his sinuses would swell to the point where they were uncomfortable. He had to go to a doctor who gave him some other drugs to help with his withdrawal.
I have no idea if the inhalers would do that, but if I were to consider trying an inhaler, I'd investigate the side effects first.
- - - - - -
I was one of the lucky ones who reacted quickly when I saw an article in the newspaper saying local hospitals got a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines, and I've had both shots. In another week I'll have a 95% chance of being immune. I'll still follow all the CDC and WHO guidelines because I think the contagious disease scientists know more than politicians, pundits, preachers, propagandists, and people with other fields of knowledge.
Doctors can legally prescribe medications that have FDA approval for reasons other than the original intent of the medication. It is call "off label" use and is quite common.
Tocilzumab, a medication originally developed for arthritis is being used in some hospitals to reduce the effects of Covid-19.
While the first use of budesonide may have been purely experimental or intuitive the data was the reason serious science was used to explore the possibility that it could be useful.
I like Keith, "cringe when I read about a totally untested treatment and the proponent uses words like “common sense” and “intuitive” to explain the rationale for the treatment."
It depends on who is making the claim. It is common sense and intuitive to a doctor that certain medications "perhaps could" be useful to treat to Covid. They are allowed by US law to use there "common sense and intuition" to try medications developed for other purposes and often do. They are also responsible for the outcomes of their actions. The threat of legal action often constraints doctors in hospitals from trying things. It is a ballance, some people will die because they did not try and some will die because they did try.
I have little interest in what youtube has to say or the media. I want to read the technical information that is peer reviewed from a well known and respected institution. People who depend only on social media, youtube, and the news media as their only source of information will be hard pressed to make logical informed decisions about what to believe.
In a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic we will always take some level of risk because we have no other real choice. Nothing to my knowledge other than remdesivir has been actually approved by the FDA in the fight against Covid-19. The FDA is looking at things every day so they may have approved things I am not aware of. The FDA has granted an emergency use authorization for several things to include at least two vaccines not because they like doing that but because they have no other real option. So far it looks like that was a risk well worth taking.
At the end of the day Civid-19 where it has been controlled, it did not happen due to medication. It was brought under control by well known simple public health measures, mask wearing, seperating people, limiting movement, testing and contact tracing. Where those public health measures have not been adopted early on large amounts of people have died.
I have a serious interest in biochemistry and Covid is only one subject I am studying.
I know this is not a subject matter we normally discuss on this forum but it effect is relevant to all of us, plus the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are dying.
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
I have no idea if the inhalers would do that, but if I were to consider trying an inhaler, I'd investigate the side effects first.
I think exactly the same way. That's why I love the internet. It's very easy to find the information. I also (a) make sure that the sites I go to are reputable and (b) look for confirmation on three or four other reputable websites.
Originally Posted By: Notes Norton
In another week I'll have a 95% chance of being immune. I'll still follow all the CDC and WHO guidelines because I think the contagious disease scientists know more than politicians, pundits, preachers, propagandists, and people with other fields of knowledge.
I've been doing some work on "Efficacy" versus "Effectiveness" of vaccines. Non-medical journalists use the two terms loosely and interchangeably. The words are not synonyms, though.
An efficacy of 95% does not mean that 95% of people are immune after taking the vaccine. All the current vaccines offer pretty much 100% protection in one form or another. For example...
all vaccines seem to reduce severity of COVID if one catches it
all vaccines significantly reduce the likelihood of death from COVID
it's also possible that all vaccines increase the likelihood of being asymptomatic if one catches the virus (since efficacy is determined by only looking at symptomatic cases unless otherwise noted)
In Phase 3 testing of vaccines, two groups of approximately the same size are created. One group gets the vaccine (vaccinated group, Group A) and the other group gets a placebo (unvaccinated group, Group B).
Efficacy is then determined by comparing who developed symptoms in the two groups. Here's an example of how the calculation is done...
if 6 people in Group A develop symptoms and 56 people in Group B develop symptoms, then
Thus Efficacy indicates the number of people in Group A, the vaccinated group, who developed symptoms is 89.3% less than the number of people in Group B who developed symptoms.
When COVID-19 burst into the world it was brand new and nobody knew what was going to happen. During this time, learning about COVID was primarily through trial and error; that is, "hope we don't make a mistake but if we do then let's learn from it." It's really good to see that scientists are now getting on top of this so quickly.
I watch a lot of series on Netflix from around the world. In all 2020/21 dramas from the countries I watch, I now often hear English terms such as "social distancing", "flatten the curve", "lockdown", "PPE", "curfew", etc. It's eye-opening.
Yesterday, we had 11 cases of one of the latest mutations of COVID. Today, that has grown to 16. In an attempt to surmount this, our state Premier and his health team are putting Victoria into a 5-day, circuit breaker lockdown. If anyone is interested, the below link shows what that looks like.
Sorry to hear you guys are going back into lockdown. This pandemic is a ongoing disaster for the whole world.
Let's hope all these continued efforts continue to produce the remarkable results you guys have had to date.
28,281 people have died here in the state of Florida where I live to date with no real end in site. I rode my bike around the neighborhood today and no one had a mask on.
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
With this weekend being Chinese New Year celebrations and Valentines day, it's pretty easy to see why authorities went for lockdown. The potential to create a disaster from these two events is significant. Since we've been there and done lockdown before, while it's annoying, we now know what to do and we know its effective.
I'm so sorry to hear about so many people dying. 28,000 people is an enormous number. And you'd probably multiply that by 10 or 20 for the number of people who will be deeply saddened by the passing of their loved ones. Here in Australia, we've been spared such agony.
Wherever I go in my area, 9/10 people are wearing masks. Not so much outside, if space permits for social distancing, but certainly in shops, and other indoor settings where the public go.
When I think of reducing my chances of catching COVID, I think of the Swiss Cheese model below (virologist Ian Mackay came up with this). Each slice of cheese has holes in it so one slice is not 100% effective at stopping everything. When multiple slices are randomly assembled, though, chances increase that anything that passes through earlier slices of cheese will be stopped by a latter slice.
I rode my bike around the neighborhood today and no one had a mask on.
I'm concerned about all the festivities in Tampa from the Super Bowl. That really looked like a super spreader event as there was lots of news footage of the maskless in large groups.
User Video: Band-in-a-Box® + ChatGPT = Impressed the BOSS!
Since AI is now readily available online as a resource for many things, we recently put together and shared a video where we demonstrated how to create a song using Band-in-a-Box®, ChatGPT, and Synth V; we've also shared a Bob Doyle Media video, Convert MIDI Chords into AI Vocal Harmonies with ACE Studio and Band in A Box, showing how they utilize AI for their song projects. Now it's time to share Henry's video, Band-in-a-Box + ChatGPT = Impressed the BOSS!, where he demonstrates how to use ChatGPT and Band-in-a-Box to whip a song project together in only 3-4 hours.
Visit Henry Clarke's YouTube Channel, Henry Clarke - Senior Musicians Unite, to find a large collection of tutorials showing the viewer how to achieve amazing results using Band-in-a-Box®!
If you've reviewed our Support page, you've probably noticed the Videos page, which separates our Band-in-a-Box® tutorial videos by category: Overview, VST DAW Plugin, Setup, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and there's even an Archive category to go down memory lane... (You'll also find these videos on our YouTube Channel.)
Ci siamo dati da fare e abbiamo aggiunto oltre 50 nuove funzionalità e una straordinaria raccolta di nuovi contenuti, tra cui 222 RealTracks, nuovi RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 3, Playable RealDrums Set 2, due nuovi set di "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 e altro ancora!
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 apporte plus de 50 fonctions nouvelles ainsi qu'une importante de contenus nouveaux à savoir : 222 RealTracks, des RealStyles nouveaux, des SuperTracks MIDI, des Etudes d'Instruments, des Prestations d'Artistes, des "Morceaux avec Choeurs", un Set 3 de Tracks Jouables, un Set 2 de RealDrums Jouables, deux nouveaux Sets de "RealDrums Stems", des Styles XPro PAK 6, des Xtra Styles PAK 17 et bien plus encore!
Video: Making a Song with Band-in-a-Box®, ChatGPT, and Synth V
Take your Band-in-a-Box® project to a whole new level when you incorporate ChatGPT and Synth V to add lyrics and vocals to your song!
We wanted to demonstrate how this is done with our video, where we show you how to go from nothing to a finished "radio ready" modern pop song by combining the features of Band-in-a-Box®, ChatGPT, and Synth V!
User Video: Convert MIDI Chords into AI Vocal Harmonies with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®
The Bob Doyle Media YouTube channel is known for demonstrating how you can creatively incorporate AI into your projects - from your song projects to avatar building to face swapping, and more!
His latest video, Convert MIDI Chords into AI Vocal Harmonies with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box, he explains in detail how you can use the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box with ACE Studio. Follow along as he goes from "nothing" to "something" with his Band-in-a-Box MIDI Melodist track, using ACE Studio to turn it into a vocal track (or tracks, you'll see) by adding lyrics for those notes that will trigger some amazing AI vocals!
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