Saturday, March 21, 2020

A Needle In A Hay Stack Is A Piece of Cake Compared To Trying To Find Good News About Coronavirus That Isn’t Followed By A Series of “Ya, Buts…”


Have you ever heard of or do you remember Al Capp? He wrote the comic strip Li’l Abner from 1934 till 1977. Al Capp was famous for a long time, the merchandising sales that spun off from his comic strips made millions of dollars and he was acknowledged to be a Comic Strip Genius.

Today I am going to imitate Al Capp in writing this Blog Posting. He was known to say he was an Expert on Nothing with an Opinion on Everything. (I tried to verify him saying this about himself on the Internet and found that a Drag Queen Insult Comic named Bianca Del Rio has taken over what I just said Al Capp said about himself for herself). 

I am not going to be so bold to say I am an expert on the Coronavirus but in regards to this “Ya But…” I am going to claim to have an opinion that no one could disagree with…Or could they?
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A few days ago there was a dramatic announcement about a drug that showed great promise of being a cure for the Coronavirus…
Ø The drug is Chloroquine and is also called Hydroxychloroquine.
Ø It has been used as a treatment drug for Malaria for about 55 years.
Ø Chloroquine was first discovered in 1934 by Hans Andersag while he was working for Bayer AG.
Ø It has also been used to fight Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus Erythematosus. 

The Bottom Line is this is a well established and long used drug that any doctor can prescribe to his patients. It Does Not Kill People.
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The very next day after the news about Chloroquine became public, further information about Chloroquine was found in Small Headlined Articles below many much bigger the World is Coming to an End Headlined Articles.

By the third day it was difficult to find anything about Chloroquine and, when you did, the article you found was full of, “Ya Buts…”.

I am going to limit this Blog Posting to one particular “Ya But”…
Ø Here is the headline that caught my eye, “Virus Drug Touted by Trump, Musk Can Kill In Just Two Grams”.
Ø How many readers of this headline (who, as usual, did not read the whole article) said to their collective selves, “I ain’t gonna take that killer drug!”

The facts behind the Killer Headline are…
Ø The recommended dosage is 1 Gram a Day.
Ø It is true that, if one takes 2 Grams instead of 1 Gram, it can be fatal.
Ø This can probably be said for many drugs…If you double the recommended dosage you might get the hiccups, you might get a rash, you might start dressing up as Bianca Del Rio or you might die.
Ø It is also true that, if you double the recommended amount of Paprika in your Goulash, you could end up with Goulash that would make you gag.
>>>We do not see warning labels on Paprika cans saying, “Do not double the recommended amount of Paprika or you will gag!”
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I also saw this “proof” of the Dangers of Chloroquine...
A woman in Wuhan proved how lethal Chloroquine can be when it’s taken beyond the recommended dose. On Feb. 25, Shanghai-based The Paper reported that she took 1.8 grams of the drug she ordered online after suspecting she had the Coronavirus. She did not, but the drug caused her to develop malignant cardiac arrhythmia, which can cause sudden death, and she was admitted to the intensive care unit. 

To panic about the above paragraph the panicer (Ludwig, I know that’s not a word) has to…
Ø Not be too smart.
Ø Determine that she has the Coronavirus without consulting her doctor.
Ø Order the drug on the Internet without consulting her doctor.
Ø Not know about the recommended daily dosage (which she might have known about if she had consulted her doctor).
Ø Taken almost double the recommended daily dosage without consulting her doctor.
Ø There is a good chance she took the 1.8 grams all at one time. Since she had not consulted her doctor, she did not know that the recommended 1 gram per day is recommended by doctor people to be taken in 2 doses of 500 mg.

There are other “Ya Buts…” I could peck out for you but I am tired of pecking and you are tired of reading this blog, so the Blog Posting and I are now coming to an abrupt end.

Would I kid u?
Smartfella

Lagniappe: There are several graduates of my High School (Jesuit High School) reading this blog. If you don’t know, you are about to know that Al Capp created the Fighting Blue Jay Mascot figure you know so well…
 

Yea, I know the Toronto Blue Jays ripped us off and came up with this silly looking mascot thingy…