The story with Hydroxychloroquine
All that hilariously misguided and counterproductive criticism the media piled on chloroquine (purely for political reasons) as a viable treatment will now go down as the biggest Fake News blunder to rule them all. The media actively engaged their activism to fight 'bad orange man' at the cost of thousands of lives. Shame on them.How does chloroquine work? Same way as it does for malaria. You see, malaria is this little parasite that enters the red blood cells and starts eating hemoglobin as its food source. The reason chloroquine works for malaria is the same reason it works for COVID-19 - while not fully understood, it is suspected to bind to DNA and interfere with the ability to work magic on hemoglobin. The same mechanism that stops malaria from getting its hands on hemoglobin and gobbling it up seems to do the same to COVID-19 (essentially little snippets of DNA in an envelope) from binding to it. On top of that, Hydroxychloroquine (an advanced descendant of regular old chloroquine) lowers the pH which can interfere with the replication of the virus. Again, while the full details are not known, the entire premise of this potentially 'game changing' treatment is to prevent hemoglobin from being interfered with, whether due to malaria or COVID-19.

@AngryCodger : Thank you so much for posting this information.

@AngryCodger : I think that's the key, full details not known yet. And the media relies on actual scientists and medical experts vs. his "instincts" and those who tell him what he wants to hear instead of possible problems. I am hoping developing the antibodies method might work better.

Science not ideology
The AMA does not endorse the standard use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.

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@cjsummers : True, but I would still rather trust the scientists than the ideologues!

When science is done right it should be empirical and unbiased. People are human... flawed... but science is subject to peer review, is subject to testing and more importantly retesting. When the evidence shows a different direction, then the conclusions are revised. That's a feature, a benefit, not a flaw.Ideology and dogma are not concerned about evidence, testing, or retesting.

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Hopefully GOD.

@Mahkno : It also may have been that there were not even studies at that point?www.history.com/news /cigarette-ads-docto rs-smoking-endorseme nt
When Cigarette Companies Used Doctors to Push Smoking
Before studies showed that cigarettes caused cancer, tobacco companies recruited the medical community for their ads.In 1946, Reynolds launched an ad campaign with the slogan, "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette." They'd solicited this "finding" by giving doctors a free carton of Camel cigarettes, and then asking what brand they smoked.

So an interesting footnote on the IHME website, "COVID-19 projections assuming full social distancing through May 2020". With that being said they have revised the total projection down to less than 61k.
Source: covid19.healthdata.o rg/united-states-of- america/illinoisDrilling down to just Illinois, though you can see how the smaller data sets have huge swings on a day over day basis.The peak, or apex of the Illinois curve is forecast as April 12 - essentially the same for the US as a whole.

Source: wiu-gis-center.maps. arcgis.com/apps/opsd ashboard/index.html# /8ef833c7ed254f

The aatishb.com/covidtre nds/ interactive graph is also still being updated / maintained and appears to reflect the forecast of a nearing apex as well. You can toggle the graph from Log to Linear in the lower right next to the time slider.

@mypeez : Thank you for the information. What I worry about is the long plateau. Government and businesses will reopen and people will forgo isolation. They want to get back to their normal lives, meanwhile, seniors and those at-risk will suffer the consequences. I hope people remember that no one is guaranteed they will survive if they get sick.

@Prairiegirl : Agreed. I haven't seen much discussion on R0. This seemed like a decent narrative on why Covid-19 is not like the flu.

@Prairiegirl : I don't think anyone will force seniors out of their homes. They can continue to self isolate if they wish to, and frankly are probably the best group of people to do that, since the majority are probably on some form of retirement income and not as dependent upon a paycheck. When this order is lifted I will certainly venture out more than I do now, but that will still be basically isolated. Some car trips, a walk i the woods or park, maybe a trip to Lowe's to get some stuff for home projects (with a mask on of course). Might even join some fellow codgers for a few drinks in their yard six feet apart. But largely, as part of the high risk category, I'll continue to stay away from crowds, I'll get my groceries curbside, etc. I don't expect people who need to work to support their families to continue to do the same on my behalf though. Once the curve is flattened, we need to open the economy. If the governor doesn't do it, I think the people will.Update: just heard that the President is to announce a task force to look at how/when to reopen the economy. It will be headed up by his Chief of Staff. GOOD. Hopefully it is staffed with people from both the economic side and the health side, and Trump will listen to them.