Great variant summary. Trying to piece this information together from tweets has been daunting and it very helpful to have an expert summarize this information for us. It is good that the FDA will update the booster. I am concerned that it would have been better to update it to NB.1.8.1 but I understand some were concerned that this might have sparked a call for clinical trials and understandably were hesitant to take that risk.
Thank you for all of this! I won't comment on everything, but just one deeper dive on the NAC as treatment. I started to get excited but after crunching some numbers in the study I am left thinking it's not worth it. Hoping to get a Covidlandia post out this week (overlapping with some of your highlights this month), and here is what I plan to induce about NAC study:
A study of 12 trials with 1,125 COVID-19 patients examined whether N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplements help reduce deaths. Overall, NAC appeared to lower mortality risk by 41% (confidence interval: 12-61% reduction). However, these results are questionable due to inconsistent findings across studies.
Confidence intervals show the range where the true effect likely falls. When NAC was taken orally, the confidence interval was extremely wide—suggesting anywhere from a 93% reduction to a 30% increase in death risk, making the results unreliable. Intravenous NAC showed a modest 24% mortality reduction, but the confidence interval barely reached statistical significance. The truth might be anywhere between 41% and 1% risk reduction.
While laboratory studies suggest NAC might block the virus, the clinical evidence remains weak and inconsistent, raising doubts about whether NAC meaningfully helps COVID-19 patients survive.
Thank you. I hope you have a refreshing break.
Great variant summary. Trying to piece this information together from tweets has been daunting and it very helpful to have an expert summarize this information for us. It is good that the FDA will update the booster. I am concerned that it would have been better to update it to NB.1.8.1 but I understand some were concerned that this might have sparked a call for clinical trials and understandably were hesitant to take that risk.
Thank you for all of this! I won't comment on everything, but just one deeper dive on the NAC as treatment. I started to get excited but after crunching some numbers in the study I am left thinking it's not worth it. Hoping to get a Covidlandia post out this week (overlapping with some of your highlights this month), and here is what I plan to induce about NAC study:
A study of 12 trials with 1,125 COVID-19 patients examined whether N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplements help reduce deaths. Overall, NAC appeared to lower mortality risk by 41% (confidence interval: 12-61% reduction). However, these results are questionable due to inconsistent findings across studies.
Confidence intervals show the range where the true effect likely falls. When NAC was taken orally, the confidence interval was extremely wide—suggesting anywhere from a 93% reduction to a 30% increase in death risk, making the results unreliable. Intravenous NAC showed a modest 24% mortality reduction, but the confidence interval barely reached statistical significance. The truth might be anywhere between 41% and 1% risk reduction.
While laboratory studies suggest NAC might block the virus, the clinical evidence remains weak and inconsistent, raising doubts about whether NAC meaningfully helps COVID-19 patients survive.
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