Author Archives: jbakerjrblog

One of the most disturbing problems in COVID-19 medicine care has been that a few young people have become extremely ill with this infection. While these cases are rare, they unnerve physicians because the patients have not had the chronic Illnesses that predispose most people to serious COVID-19 infections. Many of us have thought thatContinue reading “Cellular immune problems are why young people can die from COVID-19”

On Friday, the medical Journal Lancet published the results of the first clinical trials involving the Russian COVID-19 vaccine.  As background, the Russian vaccine (nicknamed Sputnik V after the famous satellite) is made from a recombinant virus that causes human colds upper respiratory infections (adenovirus) that has been genetically modified to produce the spiked protein from theContinue reading “We finally get to see the results of early clinical trials of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, and they look OK.”

I have received a number of inquiries from people who’ve identified a recent article suggesting that a supercomputer has identified Bradykinin as the central mediator of inflammatory disease associated with COVID-19. I have to say that I’m not impressed by this hypothesis.  This theory proposes that a single molecule, bradykinin, which is involved in opening poresContinue reading “What drives severe disease in COVID-19 patients?”

I received a number of inquiries from blog readers today about the issue of myocarditis associated with COVID-19 infection.  Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle that can cause dysfunction of the heart or even abnormal heartbeats that can lead to death. It can lead to heart failure and rob the body of blood flowContinue reading “Myocarditis and COVID-19”

Last week I used two blog posts to examine the decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide an emergency use approval (EUA) for the treatment of COVID-19 with convalescent plasma. This therapy theoretically uses antibodies from the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients to neutralized and inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the bloodstream ofContinue reading “It’s the NIH vs. the FDA on convalescent plasma treatment of COVID-19!”

There were two new reports today on plans for the distribution of coronavirus vaccines once they are approved. The first came from the United States National Academies Advisory Group, which was developed specifically to address the distribution issue. It addresses some very important issues on the distribution of the vaccines and prioritizing which individuals get theContinue reading “News on the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.”

Another case of a recurrent infection with COVID-19 has been reported. This case was similar to the Hong Kong case in that the secondary infection was identified because the viruses from these patients were both amplified by PCR and sequenced and found to be different from the virus initially isolated when the patient first hadContinue reading “Another preliminary report on COVID-19 re-infection.”

When Abbott announced they had obtained FDA emergency use approval (EUA) for their BinaxNOW test, a $5 rapid test to diagnose COVID-19, it appeared to be almost too good to be true. The test, which works like a home pregnancy test, can be used with nasal or oral secretions to identify the presence of coronavirusContinue reading “Abbott’s new $5 test finds $750 million buyer in the government”