Since Lockdown Sceptics reported on Sunday about the remarkable effectiveness of the common asthma treatment Budesonide against COVID-19 – cutting serious disease by 90% according to a study published in the Lancet – a new study has appeared underlining its effectiveness as a Covid treatment.
The first study was part of the STOIC trial at Oxford University and found that 10 of the 73 symptomatic Covid patients in the control group required urgent medical care (e.g. hospitalisation) compared to just one of the 73 symptomatic Covid patients who inhaled Budesonide twice a day. This translates to 87% effectiveness in preventing serious disease. One limitation of the study was that few of the participants were high risk or elderly, with an average age of 45; another was that it was small.
The new study is from the PRINCIPLE trial, also based at Oxford, and uses a larger group (751 using Budesonide, 1,028 in the control group), all of whom are either over 65 or over 50 with a risk-increasing underlying health condition. It found that Budesonide reduced a patient’s time to recovery by an average of three days (11 days compared to 14), and also reduced the chances of a relapse within 28 days.
Disappointingly, however, those who took Budesonide were only slightly less likely to be admitted to hospital – 8.5% compared with 10.3% – and this result was not statistically significant (though the trial is to be expanded which may address this issue).
Professor Richard Hobbs of Oxford University, who co-leads the trial, said: “For the first time we have high-quality evidence of an effective treatment that can be rolled out across the community for people who are at most risk of developing more severe illness from COVID-19. Unlike other proven treatments, Budesonide is effective as a treatment at home and during the early stages of the illness. This is a significant milestone for this pandemic and a major achievement for community-based research.”
On Monday, an alert was sent to the NHS saying the drug can now be used off-label for the treatment of COVID-19 for the over-65s and at-risk over-50s, the Telegraph reports.
This is good news. However, not everyone is convinced. The ‘Swiss Doctor’ notes that the trials have financial ties to Budesonide manufacturer AstraZeneca, and that the results are not as impressive as the newspaper reports might suggest. For example, they use “soft” rather than “hard” endpoints.
In both trials, Budesonide achieved no significant improvement in any “hard endpoint”: in the PRINCIPLE trial, there was no significant difference in hospitalisations, deaths, hospital assessment without admission, oxygen administration, and ICU admission. In the Oxford [STOIC] trial, there was no significant difference in the proportion of people and days with an oxygen saturation below 94%, PCR cycle threshold increase, and FluPRO-measured symptom resolution.
The “soft” endpoints were “self-reported recovery” in PRINCIPLE and “urgent care visits” in STOIC, of which only one patient was actually hospitalised and required oxygen.
The ‘Swiss Doctor’ does concede that there was some indication of benefit to the high-risk in the PRINCIPLE trial: hospitalisation/death risk was lower (8.5% vs 10.3%), oxygen requirement was lower (5.8% vs 8.4%), and ICU admission was lower (1.2% vs 2.2%). However, the trial will need to expand if these differences are to gain statistical significance.
The positive results for Budesonide are certainly welcome, as is the news that the NHS has been given the green light to prescribe it for high-risk groups. Though why not for the low risk under-65s as well? In the STOIC trial it cut the need for urgent care to close to zero in that group. Is that not a worthwhile medical intervention, particularly with all the worry about ‘long Covid’?
It’s fair to say that the 17% reduction in hospitalisation/death among the high risk is disappointing when compared to the impressive 87% reduction in urgent care among the low risk. But it’s still an improvement, and the other indicators – shorter recovery time, reduced need for oxygen and intensive care – are also encouraging.
I should add that what we’re really waiting for are high quality results on the highly promising Ivermectin that are deemed acceptable to the health regulators so that drug can become generally available. No rush, guys. Not like people are dying or anything.
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The good news is that these signatories have had the balls to challenge the government and PayPal, the sad news is that their are relatively few of them.
The non-signatories can hang their heads in shame for their cowardice.
Over to you Liz.
Good morning my fellow Sceptics.
Morning, one and all.
The fight continues. It spreads into everything. Shows what we’re up against, and that we are onto them and their lies and corruption.
PS Never-in-a-Month-of-Sundays did I think I’d say this (let alone write it here under my name), but 911 was a put-up job. Better late than never, eh?!
Yes, I only realised this about 9/11 in the last year, having had my eyes opened generally during the Covid thing I became able to see the evidence clearly, 21 years after the event! Am in awe of the people who’ve managed to keep spreading the word for so long.
James Corbett has recently released the third part of his excellent False Flags documentary, centred on 911. Part 1 is here:
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1744-false-flags-watch-along-part-1/
You can find parts 2 and 3 later on his site.
It goes back much further than 9/11. The keystone was the arrival of Benjamin D’israeli into British politics. The type of politics we have now began with him – and it was he who helped launch the Rothschild empire, integrating it into British politics.
Think twice about what you were taught in school about the world wars – you were reading the victor’s version of history.
I like to go back to my 1906 encyclopaedia where possible. Any particular aspect of history? And do I need an earlier or alternative source?
Everyone had better get on to the 911 false flag.
It is the keystone to awakening. It’s incredibly obvious yet causes normie to Gale their eyes at you when you tell them to look at any number of “problems” with the story, like building 7.
I literally had this happen at dinner last night.
Do you know that September was originally month seven in the Roman calendar? It’s believed that the twin towers represented one and one, and building seven was actually number nine. 911 – or, September 11th.
Next you’ll be telling us OCTober was the 8th month.
Mockery is the sincerest form of flattery. In the time you spent writing your comment, you could have checked for yourself. September was originally the seventh month in the Roman calendar.
my point was that the clue is in the name. SEPT=7, OCT=8, NOV=9, DEC=10
It’s illegal. Please stop smoking it.
I have it on good authority that all the people who allegedly died are actually alive on a Pacific island, living in a sort of witness protection programme with rather splendid accommodation prepared months in advance, and protected by the US Marshal Service.
A very welcome development …. but only 42 members of Parliament out of 650 MPs and 800+ members of the House of Frauds is disappointing.
It demonstrates how little regard the vast majority have for democracy and free speech.
You only get a true measure of organisations such as PayPal when they overplay their hand. We can now see exactly how truly hideous they are.
Or how supine and spineless they are. Not sure which is worse.
An important point. This has only been noticed becaus the insidious agenda slithered out of its normally well-hidden pit.
The good news is that now you Pommies have Jacob Rees-Mogg as the relevant minister. The son of the bloke who wrote “Who breaks a butterfly on the wheel?” The tide is turning.
This is gearing up to be a very interesting test of how far the state has been captured by the oligarchy.
On the one hand, this seems like an open and shut case of an intolerable abuse of power that if left to stand sets a chilling precedent that bodes terribly for free speech and liberty.
On the other hand PayPal cannot back down because to do so would be conceding that there are instances that they don’t have a right to shut you off or that their review process is flawed, which opens a massive can of worms.
Now that a significant group of elected representatives has waded in to force the government to address the issue we shall see.
We shall see who the state ultimately stands for. If PayPal is allowed to get away with this and continue in the same way, we’ll know the state is fully captured by the oligarchy. If rules are set so the likes of PayPal aren’t allowed to carry on in this way, we’ll know the state still serves the people at some significant level.
Intriguing.
The FSU is no small fry either.
They have picked a battle with a David that has a bloody big set of sling stones.
Hear! Hear! But PayPal is just one of the Gorgon’s heads. Plenty more needs to be done but it is a start. Policing next…article in DT today interviewing new head of College of Policing – they’ve suddenly realised that they should be getting back to basics, like solving “proper” crimes and avoiding political issues. Who knew???
The State doesn’t like competitors. Paypal might well be thrown to the wolves by the powers that be.
Whilst the declaration from MPs is welcome it’s ruined a bit for me by lockdown fascist Gove being a signatory.
Yes it’s not all that many MPs, but there’s some big-hitters there, and I’m surprised they’ve picked up on this and done anything at all.
Even though it might not seem it I think this country does have a fighting chance of pushing back against the “progressive” corporatist authoritarian groupthink. Truss could turn out to be sounder than Tory leaders of recent memory – that she’s aware of the problem is at least a start.
Someone has to lead the way in sticking up for the values that most people hold dear – truth, fairness, family values and free speech – and it’s probably going to be us – again.
I can’t be the only one who thinks the likes of Gove have put their names to this is because they are desperate to foist a cashless society on us and know that PayPal’s actions in demonstrating the danger it would represent to “dissidents” will make it far harder to achieve.
Looks like Toby Young wasn’t just talking when he said PayPal have “picked on the wrong guy”.
Now I definitely don’t agree with everything Toby Young says, believes or has said. But I’m very grateful to him for setting up LockdownSceptics (now The Daily Sceptic), where his voice – and many others – could be heard. it gave me hope, back in the dark days of lockdown.
And whether I agree with him totally, partially or violently disagree with him on everything is irrelevant anyway: it’s not the point. No-one has the right to shut down legal speech, however much they disagree with what is being said. So, let’s see this campaign get bigger and bigger!
Silver lining: Seemingly this story is everywhere now. There will be people being introduced to the FSU, the DS and UsForThem, who had previously never heard of these organizations through the various press releases. Plus this is good publicity, as it could mean people take pity on the victims of unfair political censorship, increasing public support for them.
It needs to be determined whether PayPal is acting on its own or in collusion with a wider cartel of banks and the payment processing duopoly that is Visa and Mastercard.
Several content creators ran into the same issues with Patreon. After some investigation it was determined that the policies Patreon had in place for certain political content were not its own, but were demanded of it by the credit card payment processors and its banking relationships, without which it could not exist.
The next question one should ask is whether the government can ever be the correct avenue to hold a banking cartel to account. Particularly our government – since it pretty much exists to protect the interests of the Anglo-American world’s banking cartel in the Corporation of London. I’m sure the Remembrancer would have a few words in the Speaker of the Commons’ ear if the conversation strayed into areas the banking cartel wouldn’t like.
Is Trudeau on the Board of PayPal? Just asking.