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COVID 2019 Comorbidity with Diabetes

Another statistician critiques the Stanford Santa Clara study - doesn't pull too many punches either. So many agendas at play too - saw a video discussing the study and apparently one of the authors wrote a puff piece in the Washington Post and didn't disclose his connection to the research. Not disclosing COI is more than a tad dodgy.

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia....-in-stanford-study-of-coronavirus-prevalence/
 
Its what we have come to expect from political contamination.
Science becomes just another paramour.
D.
Another statistician critiques the Stanford Santa Clara study - doesn't pull too many punches either. So many agendas at play too - saw a video discussing the study and apparently one of the authors wrote a puff piece in the Washington Post and didn't disclose his connection to the research. Not disclosing COI is more than a tad dodgy.

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia....-in-stanford-study-of-coronavirus-prevalence/
 
Another statistician critiques the Stanford Santa Clara study - doesn't pull too many punches either. So many agendas at play too - saw a video discussing the study and apparently one of the authors wrote a puff piece in the Washington Post and didn't disclose his connection to the research. Not disclosing COI is more than a tad dodgy.

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia....-in-stanford-study-of-coronavirus-prevalence/

Wow, very interesting. I had up to now, thought Stanford had a very high reputation so I'm a little surprised to have my doubts confirmed.

Good article, thanks.
 
Hi All,

Anyone able to unpick the mathematics below? My poor wee brain simply isn't up to grasping it, so if anyone can do a Maths Translation for Dummies, I would be very grateful!

Aseem Malhotra referenced a study in this article https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/article-of-the-week/covid-19-and-the-elephant-in-the-room/
He made the statement that
Public Health England have said now is the best time to quit smoking, citing research from China concluding that smokers were 14 times more likely to get severe disease after contracting COVID-19. (13)

So I followed his reference to here:
https://journals.lww.com/cmj/Abstra...f_factors_associated_with_disease.99363.aspx#
and found this:
Seventy-eight patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. Efficacy evaluation at 2 weeks after hospitalization indicated that 11 patients (14.1%) had deteriorated, and 67 patients (85.9%) had improved/stabilized. The patients in the progression group were significantly older than those in the disease improvement/stabilization group (66 [51, 70] vs. 37 [32, 41] years, U = 4.932, P = 0.001). The progression group had a significantly higher proportion of patients with a history of smoking than the improvement/stabilization group (27.3% vs. 3.0%, χ2 = 9.291, P = 0.018). For all the 78 patients, fever was the most common initial symptom, and the maximum body temperature at admission was significantly higher in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group (38.2 [37.8, 38.6] vs. 37.5 [37.0, 38.4]°C, U = 2.057, P = 0.027). Moreover, the proportion of patients with respiratory failure (54.5% vs. 20.9%, χ2 = 5.611, P = 0.028) and respiratory rate (34 [18, 48] vs. 24 [16, 60] breaths/min, U = 4.030, P = 0.004) were significantly higher in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group. C-reactive protein was significantly elevated in the progression group compared to the improvement/stabilization group (38.9 [14.3, 64.8] vs. 10.6 [1.9, 33.1] mg/L, U = 1.315, P = 0.024). Albumin was significantly lower in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group (36.62 ± 6.60 vs. 41.27 ± 4.55 g/L, U = 2.843, P = 0.006). Patients in the progression group were more likely to receive high-level respiratory support than in the improvement/stabilization group (χ2 = 16.01, P = 0.001). Multivariate logistic analysis indicated that age (odds ratio [OR], 8.546; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.628–44.864; P = 0.011), history of smoking (OR, 14.285; 95% CI: 1.577–25.000; P = 0.018), maximum body temperature at admission (OR, 8.999; 95% CI: 1.036–78.147, P = 0.046), respiratory failure (OR, 8.772, 95% CI: 1.942–40.000; P = 0.016), albumin (OR, 7.353, 95% CI: 1.098–50.000; P = 0.003), and C-reactive protein (OR, 10.530; 95% CI: 1.224−34.701, P = 0.028) were risk factors for disease progression.

So, is Malhotra's statement that that smokers were 14 times more likely to get severe disease after contracting COVID-19
bourne out by the mathematical hieroglyphs quoted above?

I do, of course, appreciate that there is a lot of other stuff going on too - CRP, albumin, degree of temperature, age and all the other co-morbidities we are familiar with discussing regarding COVID-19.

No statistics or epdimilogy expertise here either but 1) it is a small sample size 2) being older may just correlate with smoking history 3) in China half the population smoke but twice as many men as women do so thus if being male increases risk (as it does in the UK also) then you would expect to see smoking as confounder rather than being causally linked.
I have heard of other studies which say the opposite about China i.e that smokers are underrepreented in the stats not that anyone is going to be encouraged to start smoking as a preventative measure given that CoPD is a known co morbidity
 
Thanks Indy, I'll look at that later.
Regards
Derek
Thanks Indy,
Who did they think they were fooling fiddling the stats towards getting the answer they wanted?

This testing for those who have had the virus is extremely problematical when they register a record of other viruses like the common cold as well, which is a corona virus.
D.
 
I've been really busy and am having a hard time catching up with all the links posted. Hope to catch up with you all tomorrow.

In this video, "quercetin as a zinc isonophore" is discussed, which is a possible alternative if hydroxychloroquine not available. Both are thought to work synergistically with zinc to slow replication of the coronavirus within the cell. Additionally, this doctor has created a resource page with lots of links studies and other information - (see video below; last 10 minutes summarizes some of the information presented).

From Healthline.com...

Quercetin is found naturally in many plant-based foods, particularly in the outer layer or peel (36).

Good food sources include (36, 37Trusted Source):

capers
peppers — yellow and green
onions — red and white
shallots
asparagus — cooked
cherries
tomatoes
red apples
red grapes
broccoli

kale
red leaf lettuce
berries — all types, such as cranberries, blueberries, and raspberries
tea — green and black

Note that the amount of quercetin in foods may depend on the conditions in which the food was grown. For example, organic tomatoes appear to have up to 79% more quercetin than commercially grown ones (38Trusted Source).


 
I've been really busy and am having a hard time catching up with all the links posted. Hope to catch up with you all tomorrow.

In this video, "quercetin as a zinc isonophore" is discussed, which is a possible alternative if hydroxychloroquine not available. Both are thought to work synergistically with zinc to slow replication of the coronavirus within the cell. Additionally, this doctor has created a resource page with lots of links studies and other information - (see video below; last 10 minutes summarizes some of the information presented).

From Healthline.com...

Quercetin is found naturally in many plant-based foods, particularly in the outer layer or peel (36).

Good food sources include (36, 37Trusted Source):

capers
peppers — yellow and green
onions — red and white
shallots
asparagus — cooked
cherries
tomatoes
red apples
red grapes
broccoli

kale
red leaf lettuce
berries — all types, such as cranberries, blueberries, and raspberries
tea — green and black

Note that the amount of quercetin in foods may depend on the conditions in which the food was grown. For example, organic tomatoes appear to have up to 79% more quercetin than commercially grown ones (38Trusted Source).



I have eaten most of these foods all of my life, raw veg is a particular favourite. I am growing tomatoes and peppers indoors from seed and in my garden I have 3 raspberry bushes, a strawberry plant ( my daughter loves strawberries) and a couple of other fruits.
Thanks for the link.
 
Did anyone see today some medics were trialling nicotine patches, because some thought smoking reduced the effects of covid19?
I heard it on the beeb, but it does not mean it wasn't dreamt up by smoking apologists.
D.
 
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