Covid-19 Info Team
- Aug 1, 2020
- 1 min
89
Covid-19 Info Team
- Jul 15, 2020
- 1 min
172
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July 23, 2020
“A Private Association Seeking
to Reverse Human Senescence”
Dear Member,
My intent in writing these COVID updates is to convey succinct data that might save the lives of those infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The novel findings I uncover cause these letters to enlarge beyond my original expectations.
Many interventions we identified in early March 2020 are now used in hospital intensive care units.
While more people are infected with COVID-19, death rates in hospitals have been declining. One reason is that physicians are implementing better treatments based on knowledge garnered largely from hundreds of thousands of patients who perished.
This update describes a treatment that may be effective if administered upon manifestation of COVID-19 signs/symptoms, upon initial admission to a hospital, or even upon PCR-positive SARS-CoV-2 results in high-risk individuals.
The objective is to eradicate the virus before it progresses to a severe stage or inflicts tissue damage as it lingers for weeks/months.
What We are Seeking to Avoid
Broadway actor Nick Cordero died in early July 2020 at age 41 at Cedars-Sinai after more than 90 days in the hospital.
Nick Cordero’s young age and perhaps his celebrity status motivated doctors to take heroic efforts to save his life. As a result:
“Cordero entered the emergency room on March 30,2020 and had a succession of health setbacks, including mini-strokes, blood clots, sepsis infections, a tracheostomy and a temporary pacemaker implanted. He had been on a ventilator and unconscious and had his right leg amputated. A double lung transplant was being explored.” (Reference)
You do not want to enter a hospital in a severe COVID-19 state.
The dilemma most people face when diagnosed with COVID-19 is a prolonged wait for symptoms to manifest or worsen, and constant fear of progressing to an advanced stage requiring ICU care, with no validated treatment for early-stage disease readily available.
My hope in what I discuss next (plus all else you do to maintain immunity) will reduce your risk of winding up in an ICU or suffer a drawn out COVID-19 infection.
Potential New Early Therapy
A class of immune-boosting drugs known as interferons have long been used in the treatment of hepatitis C, leukemia, and other myeloproliferative disorders.
What has excited some researchers is using an interferon drug early in the COVID-19 disease process to initiate a potent innate immune response.
The objective is to eradicate the virus more like how healthy young people can.
Critical to this strategy is the need to begin interferon drug treatment when COVID-19 is diagnosed in the early stage before serious symptoms like breathing difficulties manifest.
Interferons turn up natural killer cell activity and mobilize other immune cells.
By enhancing natural (innate) barriers to infection, interferons may destroy viruses before they take hold and overwhelm innate and adaptive immune responses.
If interferons are initiated later during the infection, they may intensify the pro-inflammatory “cytokine storm” and worsen patient outcomes, though some reports do not appear to say that interferons worsen inflammation in COVID-19 patients.
How Interferons May Be Used
An interferon dosing schedule might be similar to what is prescribed to myeloproliferative patients, such as those battling chronic myeloid leukemia.
In addition to interferon, a vitamin A analog drug called tretinoin might be considered for use at the same time as an interferon drug.
Tretinoin has demonstrated efficacy against certain viruses and enhances innate and adaptive immune responses.
Another vitamin A analog drug called isotretinoin is suggested by other researchers for its potential anti-viral properties against SARS/Cov-2 and ancillary protection against inflammation and hypercoagulation.
Use of interferons and a vitamin A analog may be repeated on an alternate-day schedule for several weeks unless COVID symptoms worsen, which might indicate that a different approach is needed.
If COVID-19 worsens, the next treatment phase might include hospitalization and possibly an inflammation-suppressing drug like dexamethasone (if breathing difficulties become severe) and anticoagulants such as low-molecular-weight heparin.
Dexamethasone administered intravenously (6 mg/day) has demonstrated reduced mortality in hospitalized patients requiring supplemental oxygen (with or without mechanical ventilator support), but this benefit has not been observed in patients not requiring supplemental oxygen. One reason postulated for the difference is that earlier-stage COVID-19 patients may not want the immune-suppressing effects of dexamethasone, whereas many of those requiring supplemental oxygen need to suppress the pro-inflammatory “cytokine storm”.
We are seeking to avoid hospitalization by letting you know about studies suggesting use of an interferon drug in early-stage COVID-19, which requires physician oversight.
Worsening COVID-19 symptoms include breathing difficulties and/or a decline in blood oxygen saturation levels. When this happens, a quick decision is often necessary about checking into a hospital.
Blood oxygen saturation levels can be monitored at-home with low cost devices you can acquire on Amazon or elsewhere. Here is one link to blood oxygen saturation devices offered on Amazon.
Access and Cost of Interferon
Interferons, tretinoin and isotretinoin drugs are used in conventional medical practice in the United States.
The challenge is finding qualified physicians, especially hematologist/oncologists in your area knowledgeable in prescribing these drugs and monitoring individual responses. Monitoring would ideally include comprehensive immune risk profile blood testing.
I encourage physicians interested in utilizing these medications in early-stage COVID-19 patients to register on our website at: age-reversal-covid.net/sign-up-list-for-doctors.
This may enable members of our private association who contract early-stage COVID-19 to connect with physicians who want to oversee treatment utilizing these medications and other immune boosting/anti-viral approaches.
The patient cost of this treatment may regrettably be close to $8,000, which reflects the high cost of the medications, extensive immune profile blood tests and individualized treatment by the physician. The compounded drug price for a two-week course of these medications (interferon-alpha + tretinoin) should be under $4,000, but this does not include immune risk profile blood testing or expert physician oversight.
Under normal circumstances, most medical insurance plans will not reimburse you. But in today’s world, off-label drugs are routinely used in the hospital setting to treat COVID-19. It is not clear who is paying the exorbitant prices, though in-hospital drugs may be covered by federal subsidies. Using interferon and tretinoin on an out-patient basis may not be subsidized or covered by medical insurance, making them cost prohibitive to average people.
Please understand this experimental interferon strategy is hypothesized primarily for early-stage COVID-19 patients and not for prevention.
Those with advanced stage COVID-19 have been advised to avoid interferons because of concerns they might worsen the cytokine storm.
You can find scientific and lay articles about this early-treatment strategy by searching Google and/or www.pubmed.gov.
I hope physicians reading this will consider interferon and a vitamin A-analog (like tretinoin) drug for early-stage COVID-19 cases and register their contact information on our new physician directory.
This will enable members of the Age Reversal Network COVID group who are infected with early-stage SARS-CoV-2 to access these medications under physician supervision.
I encourage members of our private association who identify qualified doctors to suggest that these doctors register on our physician directory so that other members of our group in the same geographic area can inquire about use of interferon drugs + tretinoin.
Any current member of the Age Reversal Network COVID group who is infected with early-stage SARS-CoV-2 can send an email to info@age-reversal.net.
I don’t mean to sound cruel, but emails should only come from registered members of our group such as yourself. We don’t have a full-time staff to individually respond to non-members or those who join now solely to gain access to our group for COVID-19 purposes (This website is open to anyone who wants to review our articles about potential COVID-19 treatments.)
A volunteer from our group will attempt to reply, but if a significant number of our members contract COVID-19 and email us, we may not have the resources to respond. We suggest that COVID-19 patients utilize our informational resources on this website for discussion potential lifesaving experimental treatment options.
Please be aware that it will be challenging to find qualified physicians in all geographic areas to prescribe and oversee treatment with an interferon drug + tretinoin. Travel might be required, which is something COVID-19 patients are restricted in doing.
Also know that interferon drugs produce flu-like side effects as they rapidly mobilize immune responses. So a COVID-19 patient who is already feeling ill will likely feel even worse when using interferon.
There are many unpleasant effects that occur when using interferon drugs. The decision to consider this therapy is an individual one that should be made in consultation with a qualified physician.
I copy below some links describing the potential of interferon drugs to improve outcomes in patients with early-stage COVID-19.
1. Interferon responses could explain susceptibility to severe COVID-19
2. Triple combination of interferon beta-1b, lopinavir–ritonavir, and ribavirin in the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19: an open-label, randomised, phase 2 trial
3. Could Interferon Drugs Help Fight COVID-19?
4. Does interferon therapy work in COVID-19?
5. What are interferons and how do they work?
6. COVID-19: lambda interferon against viral load and hyperinflammation
Continued Letter
Some Encouraging News
The Wall Street Journal reported on June 8th, 2020 that after adjusting for age and co-morbidities, the overall hospital death rate for COVID-19 patients declined by about 40% from March to April 2020.
Some specific improvements were death rate decreases in:
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People over age 80 from 36.3% to 16.1%
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Subjects with hypertension from 23% to 12.1%
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Diabetics from 30.3% to 8.4%
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Cardiovascular disease patients from 31.5% to 12.1%
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COPD patients from 29.7% to 11.4%
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Kidney disease patients from 32.3% to 11.5%
This data is from a pre-publication study from Italian universities and local public-health authorities comparing the case-fatality rates in two Italian provinces.
The actual worldwide numbers are likely to significantly differ, but the current consensus is that more hospitalized patients are being saved as front-line physicians rapidly gain a better understanding of COVID-19.
Conversely, these declines in death rates may relate to the egregious state of ignorance everyone had about SARS-CoV-2 treatment when this virus emerged out of virtually nowhere to become pandemic.
As We Learn More, We Realize How Much We Don’t Know
Innovative ICU physicians identified in February-March 2020 the potential value of using IL-6 inhibiting drugs like Actemra® or Kevzara® to suppress the pro-inflammatory “cytokine storm”.
Initial observational and anecdotal reports showed significant reductions in inflammatory biomarkers like C-reactive protein, along with some evidence of improved patient outcomes.
These favorable findings resulted in Actemra® virtually disappearing from hospital pharmacy shelves as tens of thousands of COVID-10 patients were treated with them.
A press release by Sanofi-Regeneron in April 2020 provided an interim update on some aspects of the US-based adaptive trial design using Kevzara® in hospitalized patients.
In this press release, the interim report suggested a trend towards a mortality benefit with the high dose 400 mg group in the most critically ill COVID-19 patients But when Kevzara® was utilized at a lower dose (200 mg) as well as with less critically ill patients, there was a trend towards either neutral or negative outcomes.
Practicing medicine by press release is a poor strategy. But until the final, full clinical trial results are available for critical analysis/peer-review, insights and key pieces of information can only be obtained through press release. Information obtained through press releases needs to be interpreted cautiously.
A major unknown is the precise timing to initiate IL-6 targeted therapy.
Also unclear is rapid and early identification of specific COVID-19 patient characteristics that may benefit by targeting excess IL-6.
Another drug class with well-known, broad anti-inflammatory effects are corticosteroids. These drugs have been used for years with inconsistent, variable success in patients with acute viral respiratory distress syndromes.
Preliminary data suggests that dexamethasone may play a beneficial role in treatment of severe COVID-19and may offer a mortality benefit. Until the full results of well-designed studies are released for critical review and analysis, this, too, remains uncertain.
Anti-Coagulation Drugs
Many of you know of my longstanding advocacy for the use of certain drugs that have significant off-label benefits.
Doctors are now using cocktails of targeted antivirals, anti-coagulants and anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce hospital death rates.
The current standard in many ICUs is to counteract the hyper-coagulable state that causes so much organ damage and mortality in COVID-19 patients.
Unless contraindicated, many physicians are administering low molecular-weight heparin to help reduce blood clotting that commonly occurs inside blood vessels of COVID-19 patients.
More physicians are testing D-dimer blood levels to assess if even more aggressive anticoagulant drug therapies should be considered. Here is are two anti-coagulant protocols published by hospitals as it relates to D-dimer levels and use of anticoagulant drugs:
Stay Out of the Hospital
While Better Treatments Emerge
We eagerly await findings from clinical trials on the anti-viral drug remdesivir that will soon be studied in early stage COVID-19.
One plan is to use a nebulizer to create a remdesivir mist that is inhaled directly into the lungs to directly kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This will likely be available on an outpatient basis, thereby eliminating the need for hospitalization for certain COVID-19 patients.
This is reminiscent of the early days of treating HIV where an anti-bacterial drug called pentadamine was used in Europe in aerosolized form to kill the Pneumocystis carinii bacteria. This was the leading cause of pneumonia death in AIDS patients back then.
Pentadamine was approved in the U.S. in tablet form but had to be imported by AIDS Buyers Clubs from other countries to extend the lives of immune-suppressed AIDS victims.
The problem today is a shortage of remdesivir, so there is no country from which it can be imported now to potentially eradicate COVID-19 from the lungs of patients.
Within the next 3-5 months, there may be enough remdesivir available with which to reliably treat American COVID-19 patients.
Our Covid-19 Website
More people are dying from COVID-19, but the percent of hospitalized patients who die (i.e. the “death rate”) is decreasing as more innovative, multi-modal, medication cocktails are administered.
The population of hospitalized patients may also be shifting to younger, heathier groups as high-risk groups like the elderly, obese, hypertensive and/or diabetic shelter in place.
While the death rate is declining, many of those who recover from COVID-19 are suffering long- term disorders ranging from cognitive impairment, fatigue, and organ dysfunctions.
Our COVID-19 website (www.age-reversal-covid.net) does not cover every potential treatment, but seeks to highlight data that may be overlooked by heroic frontline physicians.
We have been posting updates every few days, but it is impossible to create a concise COVID-19 treatment protocol that many of you have requested. This must be done by ICU physicians based on their experience, knowledge, and condition of the individual patient.
I realize there is a LOT of data posted on our COVID website that is challenging to navigate through.
I did not expect so much new data would be uncovered when I started drafting the website in March 2020.
Challenges with Vaccines
Vaccines work by inducing the body to produce antibodies against a specific antigen.
An effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 will require continuous production of specific neutralizing antibodies.
The problem is that as people age, their ability to mount an effective antibody response becomes significantly impaired.
That’s why we focus so much of our age reversal research on improving immune function. As the data clearly shows, younger persons with healthier immune responses are far less likely to succumb to COVID-19.
An advance in improving antibody responses in older people will make vaccines far more effective.
Treatment Improvements
Treatment improvements may continue to reduce the death rate from COVID-19.
The latest results of the breakthrough nebulized interferon-beta trial are only a glimpse at the treatment improvements that will come soon.
That’s why it is so important that we take extraordinary steps to maintain healthy immune functions today, and I am grateful to be writing to an audience who has understood this concept for many decades.
The prospect of more effective COVID-19 treatments being available later this year should also motivate you to take precautions against infection, which means limiting social contacts and wearing the most effective face mask you can find when in public. (I wish I had a reliable face mask source to refer you to.)
The bottom line is, you don’t want to be among the last to perish from COVID-19 when effective therapies—perhaps nebulizer-delivered remdesivir—might be available soon if clinical trials yield favorable results.
Our Battle Against Biological Aging
Scientists today describe the potential of mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic by restoring more youthful immune function to elderly persons who are most vulnerable to significant disease manifestations.
That’s exactly what members of our Age Reversal Network have been seeking since 2013.
If we can induce even a modest restoration of youthful immune function, especially a more robust antibody response and enhanced natural-killer cell activity, the lives of older COVID-19 victims might be spared.
I value your feedback, and I am sorry I cannot reply to your many questions.
My primary focus remains on advancing age-reversal therapies, which ultimately will protect us against virtually every infectious and degenerative illness.
For longer life,
William Faloon, Volunteer
P.S. The Age Reversal Network is an informal association, with no funding for staff. If you inquire to us with questions, please be patient with communication delays, as we have minimal staff to answer questions of a few thousand people currently registered to receive updates.
You can read many of our previous email updates here.
About the Age Reversal Network (Age-Reversal.net)
The purpose of the Age Reversal Network is to exchange scientific information, foster strategic alliances, and support biomedical endeavors aimed at reversing degenerative aging.
We seek to unite people in ways that will accelerate the availability of rejuvenation technologies to benefit all of humanity, including members of the group. As data emerges, the Age Reversal Network will seek to rapidly convey this to members of our private association.
The Age Reversal Network consists of a few thousand individuals who have expressed their desire to donate, invest, and/or actively participate in advancing human age reversal studies.
Our public benefit group functions as a private association and consists of physicians, scientists, activists, investors, donors, and participants in previous age reversal initiatives. These individuals share a common desire to rejuvenate aged people.
Partnerships may form within or outside the group in any manner the individual members choose. Information will be shared at the discretion of the individual members.
The Age Reversal Network serves as an open-source communications channel to a wide variety of experimental technologies. There are some individuals in this group who are bound by confidentiality/nondisclosure contracts. We nonetheless welcome their input and any meaningful scientific data they are permitted to disseminate. A key to our success will be open-source information sharing whenever feasible.
Those who choose to participate in clinical trials or self-experiment with therapies described by the Age Reversal Network should do so with the knowledge that any intervention can have unknown risks.
Members of this private association acknowledge they are embarking on a voyage with historic implications relating to human longevity. As with any exploratory venture, the outcome cannot be predicted and any medical intervention carries inherent risks, especially for elderly individuals. Professional medical advice should be sought before undergoing any potential treatment you learn about from the Age Reversal Network.
To register as a member of the Age Reversal Network and receive updates about regenerative medicine research initiatives, please log on to Age-Reversal.net/join and register with your information there.
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