Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/16/doctors-say-do-not-take-dexame.html
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Ahem. I’d have said, “failing president” but maybe that’s considered impolite.
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At least it’s a fairly common drug. So when people inevitably demand it, the patients who really need it will still probably be able to get it. Unlike hydroxychloroquine.
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I can think of someone that should start taking it immediately…
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Since the theory on why it helps (if the findings hold up) is because it **suppresses overactive immune response ** it definitely does not make sense to take this to prevent infection!
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This is why we need to let Martin Shkreli out of prison! So he can buy the patent for Dexamethasone, bump the price by an order of magnitude, then people won’t be able to afford it for COVID-19. He’ll be saving lives!
Wu-Tang MF.
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I suspect pictures of the filled in face of users of coricosteroids will scare a fair number off.
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people would be idiots to take it because it’s just a powerful anti-inflammatory, it does nothing unless your lungs are inflamed
in itself it doesn’t cure you, it just gives your body a fighting chance against covid once it’s overwhelmed your system
it’s been used for years for high altitude diseases so it makes sense it also worked on covid lungs starved for oxygen
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Man, I’d hate to be on the judges panel for the Darwin Awards this year. Gonna have to wade through a lot of contestants.
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The worst thing about this story is that everyone on the scientific side has been very, very clear that it only applies to patients already in critical conditions and yet it has already been weaponised by the sloganeers into “miracle drug cure”, just like all the previous ones.
(In passing, it should be noted that the other thing the scientific side seems to be unanimous about is that anyone who reaches the point of needing ventilation but recovers is very, very likely to be seeing long-term damage. Side-effects from dexamethasone may be fairly trivial by comparison!)
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I would guess three orders.
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Won’t matter. You could have every doctor in America sign front-page ads in every newspaper and magazine, on every web site, shown by every news organ in the country, begging people not to take it, and there will still be thousands of idiots who demand it and at least one jackass who will make a fortune hyping it under a banner that it’s something the gub’mint doesn’t want you to know.
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Jeez and I was thinking my every other week schedule was rough. You are my hero @xeni.
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I remember giving Decadron to my toddler son when he was undergoing leukemia treatment. If you think a toddler is hard to deal with, try a perpetually hungry, very pissed toddler. It’s not a pleasant drug unless the alternative is dying.
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I prevent COVID-19 with a daily dose of placebo.
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I have asthma have to take a daily puff of a related steroid. The pharmacist has been having trouble getting supplies of the thing. I can only assume because it is useful for those afflicted with respiratory symptoms of COVID-19. Not looking forward to wheezy days due to even further shortages.
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I prevent COVID-19 by getting it and recovering.
Seriously, the best treatment is rest and hydration. My body told me when I had enough water. My throat would close up when I tried to eat any more than half an English muffin. Monitored temperature and had lots of blankets that I could alternatively pull on and remove to deal with the chills and overheating.
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Damn. I’m sorry to hear that 
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It was at the top of the New York Times Top Stories list when I went online today, with the headline “Dexamethasone Reduces Coronavirus Deaths, Scientists Say.” This is simply irresponsible. Even NYT readers seldom read past the first couple of lines before moving onto the next (and if you’re not a paid subscriber you’ll probably not see even the first couple of lines).
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I prevent COVID-19 by getting it and recovering.
I do not think “prevent” means what you think it means.
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