Disclaimer: After a large randomized controlled trial, the FDA revoked the EUA authorization for hydroxychloroquine and no longer recommends its use for COVID-19. Other early treatment drugs continue to be tested in large randomized controlled trials. Please keep that in mind if you listen to the podcast. While doctors can prescribe drugs off-label, a drug needs to have FDA approval for a specific disease to be widely used by the medical community.
What is Early At-home Treatment for COVID-19: The simple answer is that it’s a treatment plan and medication you can take, right when you are diagnosed or show symptoms of COVID-19 with the goal of avoiding more severe symptoms or hospitalizations.
While most people are focused on vaccines, face masks and lockdowns, some doctors are trying to get people to focus on, or at least consider, early ambulatory treatment for COVID-19. This means care that is initiated right when a person is diagnosed or starts to show symptoms, while he/she is still at home or self-isolating, and well before a person has to go to the hospital. These doctors believe early ambulatory treatment would significantly reduce hospitalizations and deaths. I am currently on an email distribution list with doctors and public health experts from all around the world who are trying to spread the word about early ambulatory care. Unfortunately, many of them have been censored or are not being “heard” by the “pandemic decision makers.” They are not getting much coverage in the media, and the question is why not? I want to stress that many of the doctors asking us to strongly consider early ambulatory care are practicing physicians and top epidemiologists at renowned academic institutions. Many are highly published in traditional medical journals. They aren’t the “Cazy Essential Oils Lady” spreading misinformation. One would think that, in a time of great urgency, physician voices would be amplified, because clinical judgement and experience is incredibly valuable when it comes to learning more about COVID-19 and addressing it. But Big Tech clearly sees things differently than me.
In my latest podcast, I chat with Dr. Peter McCullough, an internist, cardiologist and epidemiologist who authored a paper on early at-home care for COVID-19 that included a protocol for early treatment. The protocol lists specific drugs to use and when to use them, but the protocol is not FDA approved or anything like that, so please check in with your doctor first. In the podcast, Dr. McCullough discusses the rationale behind this protocol, randomized controlled trials and clinical experience, what other countries are doing for early ambulatory treatment ( things that the US is currently not doing), and why the media is not touching early ambulatory care, since he believes it could save many lives.
Dr. McCullough is the Vice Chief of Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Tx and a consulting cardiologist. He is a Principal Faculty in internal medicine for the Texas A&M University Health Sciences, has over 1000 publications and over 500 citations in the National Library of Medicine. I’ve linked to his full bio in the podcast description.
On a personal note, I recently became more interested in early at-home treatment for COVID-19 because we had a scare in my family. My dad and mom own a thriving veterinary hospital. They implemented several public health measures in order to remain open, and everything was going smoothly until a worker tested positive for COVID-19. Then more workers tested positive. My parents closed the hospital for 2 weeks for the safety of the staff that wasn’t infected and the clients. My dad also had to get tested, which really concerned me. He’s 72, an age that falls in the “high risk” category. He got tested, and while we waited for results, I started digging into early ambulatory care, which is how I stumbled across Dr. McCullough’s paper. By the way, my dad tested negative and never got the virus and, boy, were we relieved. I was also rather surprised he didn’t get it. He, like me, has Type O blood, and there’s been some evidence that suggests those with Type O blood are less prone to infection or have less severe infections. I DO have a doctor lined up to come on Causes or Cures to talk about this.
I also think we should consider early ambulatory treatment for COVID-19, because there is no guarantee that a vaccine will be effective. I know Pfizer just released some positive news, but it’s still far too early to count on a vaccine. In a subsequent blog, I will write my concerns about betting all our money on a vaccine. Till then, please listen to the podcast and study the protocol below. Talk about it, ask questions, ask your doctor about the protocol. Keep in mind that this is information, not medical advice. It’s information that we shouldn’t censor or fear. It’s information coming from practicing doctors and, at the least, information that you have a right to know is out there, and information that we should seriously consider.
To listen to the Causes or Cures podcast with Dr. Mc Cullough, click here.
If you have any questions, feel free to write me: erin@bloomingwellness.com
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Be sure to check out some of the articles/podcast episodes related to COVID-19: