My email exchanges with a physician I've known for a quarter century were touched off when I asked for her opinion about my 4/7 post titled The worst COVID-19 symptoms remind me of severe allergic reaction. My remarks did not go over well with her as you can see from an update to the post.
Today, after digesting the physician's comments, I conceded on this blog that I had made a couple gaffes, but after politely eating crow I posted a 4/9 Wall Street Journal report "Haywire Immune Response Eyed In Coronavirus Deaths, Treatment," which I thought tended to shore my argument, and sent it to the physician. Below is her response, prefaced by additional remarks she'd sent on April 8 in response to my first post.
This doesn't mean the medical description of a severe allergic reaction couldn't be revised to include the kind of respiratory issues found in extreme immune responses to Covid. But right now the point is useless; it would be a long march for scientists before they could prove or disprove it.
So at the moment, it looks as if my argument is in tatters; however, I see a way to salvage a few scraps. But now I have to get ready to go grocery shopping, a task in Covid Lockdown Washington, DC that is now as close to living in Stalinist Russia as I'd ever want to get.
So, tomorrow or late tonight will be the next post. Until then, stay safe Pundita this is not the time for sarcasm.
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Today, after digesting the physician's comments, I conceded on this blog that I had made a couple gaffes, but after politely eating crow I posted a 4/9 Wall Street Journal report "Haywire Immune Response Eyed In Coronavirus Deaths, Treatment," which I thought tended to shore my argument, and sent it to the physician. Below is her response, prefaced by additional remarks she'd sent on April 8 in response to my first post.
"People with severe allergic reactions tend to have cardiovascular collapse rather than the kind of respiratory issues seen in Covid. They may both need to be on a ventilator, but if that is the case in the short term it doesn't matter why specifically they need a ventilator. Prior to getting on a ventilator you need to be unable to oxygenate your lungs on your own with all medical interventions failing."
[In response to the WSJ report]
"Yes but it is the virus that causes the hyperactive immune response. On death certificates they never want doctors to put respiratory arrest because everyone who dies has a respiratory arrest. If the person did not get infected by Covid, they would not find themselves eating dinner and suddenly have a "hyperactive immune response" and drop dead. They die of ARDS (adult respiratory distress syndrome) cause multi-organ system failure, but basically they die of Covid. This is ridiculous hair-splitting in my humble opinion."All right. First, I think a little more crow-eating is in order given that cardiovascular collapse is not the same as respiratory failure. So while the symptoms of a severe allergic reaction and a severe reaction to Covid are on the face of it strikingly similar (see my 4/7 post for comparisons), it would be stretching the definition of an allergic reaction out of shape to consider it the same as a reaction to Covid or even similar.
This doesn't mean the medical description of a severe allergic reaction couldn't be revised to include the kind of respiratory issues found in extreme immune responses to Covid. But right now the point is useless; it would be a long march for scientists before they could prove or disprove it.
So at the moment, it looks as if my argument is in tatters; however, I see a way to salvage a few scraps. But now I have to get ready to go grocery shopping, a task in Covid Lockdown Washington, DC that is now as close to living in Stalinist Russia as I'd ever want to get.
So, tomorrow or late tonight will be the next post. Until then, stay safe Pundita this is not the time for sarcasm.
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