Thread by @kurteichenwald

This is an important thread. It is from someone who treats COVID patients who wants to get info out on what is happening.

I will give one point up top: Buy an oxygen saturation monitor for your home (theyre cheap). I will explain more below...

amazon.com/s?k=oxygen+mon…

...Trump is, once again, doing damage by misrepresenting what is happening with treatments that are decreasing death rates. They are not about him, and they new therapeutics are helpful, but have less of a role than non-specialists think. In fact, very common, cheap drugs....

...are an important part of treatment that decreases death rates, including steroid, aspirin, heparin, and others. The reason this is happening: They believed, at first, COVID killed through a pneumonia. In fact, it kills through blood clots in the body that reduce oxygenation...

...this is why there is organ damage that seems unrelated, because it is now believed the infection is not respiratory, but vascular. Which gets to the oxygenation monitor....

...People who test positive with COVID suddenly dropped dead in the past because something was happening they didn't perceive: the oxygenation of their blood was falling. So even if they felt like they could breathe, they were not getting enough oxygen...
amazon.com/s?k=oxygen+mon…

...the doctors have been calling this "happy hypoxia" - where oxygen is being denied to tissue, but there are no massive symptoms. This is why there were so many instances of people dying on the way to the hospital: their oxygen saturation was falling for hours, but they...

...felt mostly ok. By the time symptoms were terrible, the oxygen had been denied from tissues for so long that struggle to breathe, myocardial and the rest were reaching emergency level. People were arriving at hospitals - if they lived - with oxygen levels of as low as 70%...

...which is why the initial "put everyone with serious symptoms on ventilators" didn't work well. Yes, it was keeping them breathing, but tissue was still being denied oxygen because of vascular clots. They have known for awhile about this, but Trump's self-back patting about...

...new therapeutics (as if he had something to do with that) and ventilators misled everyone about what is going on. The medicines that are helpful IN THE HOSPITAL are aspirin, heparin (both of which deal with blood clots) steroids, a cheap drug used for gout called colchicine...

...and ALSO antivirals like favipiravir and remdesivir which can both kill covid. Also, for some reason I didn't understand, patients lying on their stomachs once hospitalized helps.

So, what should you do? Buy an oxygen monitor. If you test positive...
amazon.com/s?k=oxygen+mon…

...start checking your oxygen regularly. It is simple to do, the thing they put on your fingertip. If your oxygen level drops to 93% or below, go to the hospital. The drop means the clots are interfering with oxygen absorption in the tissue. And....

...once you are there, they will attack clots with aspirin or heparin and use steroids, the gout medicine and remdemsivir. This breaks up the clots, and kills the virus to stop further infection. But, dont think this is a reason to take new risks. The hypoxia can kill tissue...

...before you test positive. So don't be stupid.

Bottom line again: Buy a good oxygen meter. Use it if you test positive. Or use it anytime. If below 93% and COVID positive, go to the hospital. If above 93% and positive, stay home.

amazon.com/s?k=oxygen+mon…

A NOTE: I want to make sure I am clear. If you test positive, and are asymptomatic, keep checking your oxygen saturation and go to the hospital if you feel fine but oxygen at 93%. If you are exposed but not tested yet, do the same. Dont wait until you are symptomatic.