alawrencenyc

[alawrencenyc]

Je suis Malade

Greetings all, and thanks for sticking with me while I do battle with COVID-19. After Monday night's long sleep into Tuesday afternoon, sleep came less easily last night and a call from a wrong number woke me early today. As a result, I'm exhausted, but that seems to be the general consensus among people who are clearing the virus. Interestingly enough, my senses of taste and smell seem to come and go without reason. Again, I guess that's better than them being absent as they were before. Looking for positives, any port in a storm, right?

And as I keep telling friends, it is no longer an "if" because you will come in contact with the virus. The goal is to protect yourself from infection. Take all necessary steps and then some.

One step we shouldn't take is to watch the Cheeto-in-Chief's daily press conferences where he and his toadies dispense LIES and falsehoods about numbers and cures. We are more apt to see senior reporters being berated for not being cheerleaders than real, honest information being distributed. When the C-in-C's health experts try to clarify, they find themselves pushed away from the podium or spoken-over.

And while DC is still promoting the unproven and highly risky LIE of hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19, Americans are now also subjected to the humiliation of a bumbling administration that is blaming everyone else for its faults - really, we're going to not fund the WHO? honestly, you're going to claim that the US is sending supplies abroad when we've accepted PPE donations from Russia? What the f---k?

LIES, LIES, LIES

On a lighter note, has anyone seen that pompous fool of a Secretary of State Pompeo recently? Hmmm, self-quarantine or hospitalization? Taking bets here...

Keep up the good work, Allen 

[alawrencenyc]

Je Suis Malade

Hey y'all, I'm still here, still sick but feeling better... well, maybe not better but not feeling worse which is a good thing. No more sweats or fevers, but I still can't really taste or smell anything. And I am exhausted - sleeping 15-20 hours a day. I really appreciate every call and home delivery; makes me feel not so alone in all this, which is a real stress factor for many of us who are sheltering-at-home on our own. When you have a moment, be sure to pick up the phone and call a friend to check in.

Speaking of checking in, sleeping a lot helps me avoid the news filled with the LIES and manipulations coming out of DC. I've been completely obsessed with finding the connection between the Cheeto-in-Chief and manufacturers of hydroxychloroquine. As Seth Meyers said in a brilliant "Closer Looks" broadcast last night, something is definitely up; the C-in-C has said been saying a 6-syllable word over and over again without mispronouncing it!!

That's a fascinating clue but the smoking gun is more clearly here: Novartis (a hydroxychloroquine manufacturer and marketer) paid now-disgraced personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his lobbying group $1 Million dollars for access to American healthcare policymakers following the elevation of Trump to President. Novartis claimed these payments, made under the leadership of CEO Joe Jimenez, stopped in 2018, but in January 2020, the current CEO Vas Narasimhan was one of the executives joining Trump at dinner in Davos. The rest is history - bad, manipulative, LYING history, but history nevertheless. Vote NO to LIES and LIARS!!

Thanks, Allen Tumblr:  alawrencenyc.tumblr.com

[alawrencenyc]

I have great respect for a life filled with scientific achievements. At the same time, I am disheartened by unwillingness to use one’s intelligence and power of examination when reviewing internet sites and other documents and to create clear, unbiased, nonpolitical decisions. My response here is based on my concerns for your health, my concerns for the health of those who may find themselves under the sway of your emailings, and the general fear that the doctor whose "research" you are promoting in your recent email and his erroneous thought patterns will unduly and negatively affect people's health in this difficult and dangerous time. When people such as Dr. Zelenko are proselytizing about "cures" for a virus as dangerous as coronavirus and the illness it causes, COVID-19, it is important to review their work carefully, understand who they are and compare the studies being offered to others being done at the same time and with the same desire for a solution.

Dr. Zelenko is a member of an orthodox Jewish sect that lives in very segregated, high-density populations with elevated immediate family numbers (birth rates average around 8-10 infants per mother per family), and sadly for members of this sect, religious leaders make all decisions regarding daily life and health, including decisions concerning prenatal and early childhood care. As a result, the Orange County, NY communities that Dr. Zelenko serves, do not vaccinate their children and, as such, were responsible for the largest viral infection seen in recent history - international ramifications, mass school closings, restrictions on travel - prior to the current pandemic. Of course, I am speaking of the measles outbreak that began in 2018 and was not controlled until late 2019. Schools in Orange County and adjoining counties were closed; almost immediately because of frequent and regular travel by members of these communities between Israel and NY, both locations had outbreaks of measles unseen prior; and finally Israeli officials had to limit in- and out-going travel with this sect.

Under the current virus pandemic, members of this Jewish sect are again experiencing very high infection rates and deaths. Naturally, community spread in such dense communities is almost inevitable but an additional and major driver of the infection rate comes from this population's leaders refusing to acknowledge the dangers of the virus, the ease of its transmission, and the need to modify community behaviors. As a result, large weddings and other public gathering continue to take place, there is no social distancing, and public life is little changed. With the potential for a 100% infection rate among his friends and patients, I can understand why Dr. Zelenko is so eager to find a cure or something that provides relief for the unavoidably huge numbers of infected individuals in his community.

At the same time such a burning desire, while admirable when it pure, is in this case, at best, premature, and at worst, dangerous; however, based on the doctor's publication vehicle choice, I would label his desires to be more of a grab for publicity and notoriety and less altruistic. A German-run climate change denying, misapplied science provider (we all remember the discredited Lancet-published article about children's vaccines causing autism, right?), false science spewer, is hardly a legitimate site for learning about new and healthy medical decisions.

Below here, you will find several articles from legitimate news sources that should be considered when deciding how to measure the value of hydroxychloroquine in treatment protocols for COVID-19:From the business publication, The Street (this writer, a medicinal chemist who actively does research raises a very good question, how is a drug that kills parasites (living organisms) effective against a virus- (non-living) borne illness):

https://www.thestreet.com/phildavis/news/could-chloroquine-treat-coronavirus

Next, a very balanced review of the varied results found in chloroquine treatment of COVID-19 and other viral infections, publish by Elsevier in May 2020 and available on Science Direct (of note are the writers' highlights at the top of the article):

Of chloroquine and COVID-19

Finally, to avoid any cries of Antisemitism or related hate-charges, an interesting review of Dr. Zelenko's work by a known Jewish journalist who is a staff writer at one of the most respected Jewish publications in the world, The Forward, where you can read one of Dr. Zelenko's comments on youth being unaffected by the virus despite 38% of Americans hospitalized from COVID-19 being between the ages of 20 and 54:

Hasidic doctor steps up campaign for controversial drug, as states clamp down on prescriptions

Frankly, I don't care what other individuals in your sphere or those coming in contact with you (hopefully only via electronic communication) are saying and doing; I don't care if they live or die, and if they chose to follow some sort of half-baked inconclusive science for their health, now or in the future, so be it. But I don't want to lose you, don't want you to get sick, can't bear to think of you suffering and certainly, don't fucking want you to die. So rather than mounting your usual objections to my logic, try reestablishing your old lab-based reflexes and logic to look at this research and surrounding discussions in order to protect yourself. Politics won't win in this pandemic. We all know that.

Everybody, be careful and be safe,Love,Allen

[alawrencenyc]

Je suis malade

Good morning all, Really early for me, right? LoL! I know but it's more the product of my reality than my desire. I was doing better but last night I went to bed late with a "bad stomach," a not atypical symptom of COVID-19 (which also in my world means, going to bed wearing a diaper) and I was awoken this morning about 6am with a strange feeling.... Yep, messy bed; damn, I hate that. I don't know what happened, but 6 Lopermide HCL's later, I feel comfortable enough to sit in my desk chair and write you. Ultimately, it still sucks. As a gay man, I'm concerned about going to get medical care even in NYC because of the LIES that perpetrate the tent-hospital reality. There are groups like Franklin Graham's running walk-in tents where the staff is coached to turn away LGBT individuals who show up needing help. In what world do we live? Oh, I know, the world where Dr. Rishi Desai, chief medical officer of the Osmosis website speaks openly (see it here) and the viewers' most common comment is "he won't be invited back." It's also the world where the USNS Comfort, the US Navy Hospital Ship, arrives in NYC, not to house COVID-19 patients, but to accept traditional hospital admittees in order to provide on-shore hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in traditional NYC hospitals. How many beds does this ship have? 1,000. How many crew members? 1,200. How many patients have been accommodated by the USNS Comfort as of last night (4/3/20)? Less than 20. What????  But then, why am I surprised, this ship was sent to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Marie and provided healthcare and aid to a WHOPPING 15 patients. What the fuck? It's bullshit, but the Conservative Voice Machine wishes that poor people, those of color and residents in states were we tend to vote a more liberal ticket would die. It's that simple. Stop the LIES, save lives, end bullshit. On a lighter note, I'm exhausted and have no bottom sheets left. If you've any energy and can help with laundry, let me know!

[alawrencenyc]

Greetings friends and family,I continue to improve - baby steps. Today is definitely better than yesterday with fewer fever spikes and no real night sweats. At the same time, a phone conversation an hour or so after waking left me completely winded and in need of a rest - feet up, chair in recline. I hope I continue in on the right path and that I'm not experiencing early COVID-19 respiratory issues. Meanwhile, we continue to be besieged by the LIES and manipulations coming from the Conservative Voice Machine. I regularly come across these or have them dumped in my lap, and recently they are all braying about hydroxychloroquine, aka Plaquenil, the anti-malarial drug. Recently Laura Ingraham (of no relation to those in The Little House on the Prairie) had her "medicine cabinet" on and they were surprisingly intelligent and well-spoken about the promises and limitations of Plaquenil use against the CoronaVirus infection. Most interesting was the NJ doctor whose specialty is treating infectious diseases particularly HIV and related infections in low-income/poverty level urban settings (not that The Ingraham Angle identified him as such). In the full clip, particularly before the commercial break, he clearly identifies his patient population and characteristics - diabetic or pre-diabetic, with an average BMI over 30.7. BMI is Body Mass Index; above 25 is overweight, above 30 is obese. He's been treating these patients with a regime including hydroxychloroquine and found that either within a couple of days he can remove them from ventilators or they never have to go on to a ventilator, but he is clearly speaking of his patient population - diabetic (or pre-diabetic) and obese. Great news for that population, and the other physician, a cardiologist, agreed having seen similar positives with the use of the anti-malarial WHEN careful attention is paid to EKG and other monitoring with similar patient populations. However, if you search the web for a clip of this Ingraham Angle report you will find what I was sent - an abbreviated version, post commercial break, from which the cardiologist has been removed as has the infectious diseases expert's patient population's characteristics. All that remains is the usual blah-blah-blah - LIES and manipulations of truth - seeming to show that a cross representational population of standard COVID-19 sufferers benefited greatly from treatment with hydroxychloroquine... this is the equivalent of proposing that all treatment of lower gastro diseases be done with colonics and laxatives. How long must we continue to put up with the Conservative Voice Machine's LIES? How long before someone we turn on the news and hear:

Tonight, Dr.s Blah and Blah-blah, the heads of viral epidemiology and emerging medicine, respectively, at the University of Michigan Hospital, Ann Arbor, are here to discuss their ongoing studies of prevention and cure for COVID-19 using hydroxychloroquine, or 

Tonight's special guest is the Director of Infectious Diseases at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, or

To discuss with us tonight clinical trial results testing the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine treatments for COVID-19, is Dr. XYZ, head of Viral Studies at the world famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Doing a little research for this note, I'd say it could be a long time because those legitimate hospital and research centers are studying many different COVID-19 controls and cures; hydroxychloroquine seems to be on that list but hasn't shown to have had a consistent positive response in a varied population that represents what we see in America. Despite some positives, the high levels of health care provider attention required to monitor patients receiving this protocol means the cost-to-reward ratio is to skewed towards costs when our healthcare resources are already overstretched. Please stop the LIES created to prop up, and diffuse attention away from, the lack of leadership in DC. Until tomorrow,Allen

[alawrencenyc]

hey, I've been a bit under the weather recently and I've kept my father, brother and sister-in-law up to date on my condition with daily emails outlining how I'm feeling, so I thought I'd include a couple of close friends on the email... It has been a roll-a-coaster ride, I'll admit. Luckily today again, I'm feeling a bit better. I didn't sleep last night but I'm chalking that up to less illness and more the fact that for days I've been sleeping about 18+ hours per day. The pain I felt, even in a mild case, was no fun, so I'm glad that subsiding, but I now have even more sympathy for the folks that had and will have really severe cases.  If you're hospitalized, I bet it hurts so bad you wish you could die. And of course so many more will get sick in the coming days. Dr. Birx laid out that scary projection recently where somewhere between 100,000-240,000 Americans will die in the coming day or months, but the encouraging news was what the WH said about how much better that was than 2.2 million that could have died if they had done nothing.  What? Wow! Imagine what might have happened if the WH hadn't pretended the virus didn't exist. Imagine if the WH hadn't said "15 cases going to zero, you'll see, in no time." Imagine if the WH hadn't LIED by saying "we're doing a great job; really great work here; making this Chinese-flu thing disappear." Imagine if they hadn't LIED and instead had done just something small, maybe been supportive of governors, both red state and blue state governors. It's their LYING I really hate. I can remember how the backs of my legs would sting after being thrashed for lying as an adolescent. But now I feel even worse when I'm lied to. Don't you?

[alawrencenyc]

I am managing this as I have managed lots of illnesses. I have lived thru a lot on my own and hopefully will continue to do so. As of this early evening, Wednesday, I believe I am feeling somewhat better, well rested - I only just woke up and got out of bed. At worst, I am feeling the same, so no cause for concern. I am concerned about idiotic conservative voices who wish to question the virus, it's potency, the numbers infected and the efforts being made to restrain the infection rate. Are they so foolish as to believe that the vast numbers of ill people in hospital are not actually there, that they are faking it? I also disagree completely with these same LYING, self centered groups calls' to return to "life as normal."  One even took the liberty recently to say that he and other grandparents were ready to die to keep the economy on track. I'm glad Daddy isn't a grandfather, that way he doesn't have to make that choice. On another front of Liberty, I'm pleased to see that students from that fake university are getting very sick. Trust me, COVID-19 is a bear and hurts; maybe this painful experience will help those mentally challenged youths understand that they don't own god. Have a good evening. Allen