As we have covered multiple times before, the evidence for paxlovid is heavily conflicted and mostly negative. There is very little reason to be using this agent clinically. However, despite an utter lack of evidence, many people have held out hope that paxlovid might be the miracle cure for the […]
COVID
54 posts
As mentioned in my most recent review, publication bias has been a major concern when trying to decide whether to prescribe paxlovid. Pfizer rushed to publish their positive study (EPIC-HR), but refused to release the results of a second simultaneous study (EPIC-SR) that was stopped (due to futility) at the […]
We are once again buried in a wave of viral respiratory illnesses, and much of the burden of illness is still COVID. I did a pretty thorough review of all COVID antiviral therapies in 2022, both on First10EM and on the EMCases Journal Jam, but that was 2 years ago. […]
The pace of these literature summaries has decreased over the years, but perhaps that means that quality has increased? I think there is an interesting variety of papers this time around, from sepsis, to bullshit, to patient access to their own results online. A few huge papers dropped in the […]
The internet is alive with rumors of a simple, cheap, low-risk cure for long COVID. Sound too good to be true? That’s because it almost certainly is. Let’s talk about this COVIT-OUT trial and what it says about metformin.
Before jumping into this edition, I need to address the maternal kisses study discussed last time. Obviously the study was satire, and did an excellent job in making us laugh, but most satire studies (like those in the Christmas edition of the BMJ) are real studies. Apparently this paper was […]
The quixotic search for a cure to the common cold has spilled into an ongoing search for the cure to COVID. Honestly, I am sort of over it, but I do have to admit both would be pretty great. So, as I was recently informed on the internet, is zinc […]
When a scientific paper is immediately covered in lay media, you can almost guarantee a lot of incorrect takes. When a new paper comes out on any hotly debated topic, you are bound to see strong opinions lacking almost any nuance. The only thing that is somewhat strange about the […]
Vitamin C in sepsis: Don’t LOVIT Lamontagne F, Masse MH, Menard J, et al; LOVIT Investigators and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group. Intravenous Vitamin C in Adults with Sepsis in the Intensive Care Unit. N Engl J Med. 2022 Jun 23;386(25):2387-2398. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2200644. PMID: 35704292 This is a big […]