Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Coronavirus Part 2

Episode Date: March 22, 2020

Surprise! This week our medical history podcast is about the biggest medical history event in any of our lifetimes. Let's talk about home testing! Social distancing! And some reflections from Sydnee after a week at the hospital.Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. We came across a pharmacy with the two in that's lost it out. We pushed on through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.

Come that essence, come that essence, the escalant macaque for the mouth. Wow. Hello everybody and welcome to Saw Bones, a Marinal Tour of Miscite and Medicine. I'm your co-host, Justin McRoy. And I'm Sydney McRoy. And wow, so that escalated quickly. Yeah. Wow.

No joke. Wow. We, all of a sudden, were living medical history instead of just talking about it. That's true. And you'd think that since we talk about medical history instead of just talking about it. That's true. And you'd think that since we talk about medical history, that that would be something we'd be excited about. I can't say I am.

No, yeah. I like medical history in the past where history belongs. Right. No history in the present. Thanks. No, that's not even history if you think about it. You know, Sid, that's a great point that a lot of people seem to be afraid of mentioning. It's not history. It was happening right now.

Hmm. You know, when you spend a lot of time inside, you get philosophical like that. Too true. Uh, right. So let's catch you. The last time we did an episode, I think we talked about our general lack of concern and then things sort of. Well, we did an episode, there was a whole medical questions episode in between.

Yeah, right, right, right. It's for the early because we were going on the Jococruz and at the time, we were kind of keeping in touch with everybody and I was talking to some colleagues and specialists to see, I think this is okay. And everybody seemed to agree, like, yeah, you know, right now this seems okay. You know, wash your hands and they're screening,

they're screening people on the boat and stuff. They're not gonna, it's gonna be fine. Yeah, and I mean, at the nearest we can tell, it was fine on the boat, but- But when we came back. Yeah, we had very limited internet access out there, and it was weird, we kept getting these updates, and they would pass around like old-timey,

like, word of mouth, like they were, you know, you were getting, like, text messages which is like, the schools are all closed. Or, yeah, it was wild. And it was a very different place to come back to. Like, when we went, I saw one person wearing a mask on the way there, on the way back. It was like, much, many more, many more folks.

And everyone was taking appropriate precautions. You know, there was tons of hand washing and much less hugging. Yes. I am used to. Practically no hugging, really. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No hugging, no handshakes, lots of elbow bumping. There's a new greeting.

Yeah. And, you know, everybody was appropriate, but I don't think anyone quite of elbow bumping as a new greeting. Yeah. And, you know, everybody was appropriate, but I don't think anyone quite expected what it happened when we came home. Yeah. So, I mean, before we sort of like talk more clinically, and since it's gonna share some of her experiences,

let's get out of the way that this is already very bad. This is not a cursing show. But this for people who are we're going to probably talk like a little more clinically about some things, but we want to get out in front that like, obviously, if you're in many different industries, service industries, entertainment, We know people and people that we love and are related to and care about a great deal who have already like lost their jobs as a result of this pandemic. Which, yeah, so that, you know, we realize that the effects extend beyond the obvious, which is that this virus is bad.

When we talked about it on the show previously, I tried to be cautious and optimistic that the spread would be under control before it became a And then of course, that didn't happen. And I think a lot of people were caught off guard by how quickly everything changed. Probably some people who shouldn't have been caught off guard should try to be ready for stuff like that seem to have been caught in very off guard. You keep having that, people keep saying like,

well, there's no way we could have been prepared. And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, isn't there somebody whose job it was to like run these exact scenarios? Right. To like, to be the person who who has to think about that and write out the plan for that, even though it probably wouldn't happen. Is't there somebody? Did they get fired maybe? Is that what we're, that is what I'm getting to. Their job has not been filled yet. Yes.

But yeah, so we understand this is already crummy. Like beyond crummy, again, a non-cursing show. So we can't really fully express how terrible it is for everyone. So if you're affected, and I feel like everyone is to different degrees, but if you're someone who's already been profoundly affected by this, heck, you may know someone who is sick, you know, we're so sorry, and like it's, you know, it's obviously a miserable situation. And I think that what we came to understand pretty quickly,

once we started seeing cases in the US, is that this has probably been circulating places longer than we realize. And so you're seeing a combination of the spread of the virus alongside more testing equals more positives because you find the cases. And obviously it is now, I think everyone's aware of this, but in case you're not, it's in every state. We somehow, I guess we should address this West Virginia appeared to be a strangely shaped viral virus free You took it out for a brief moment. We are 50th in so many things and here in West Virginia and now are 50th in a couple of cases

but I should I should be clear I cases. But I should I should be clear. I do not as a physician in West Virginia. And I think every physician I've spoken to would agree. I do not feel that it was because there were no cases. Right. Obviously at this as it stands right now, I believe there are seven to eight cases in West Virginia. There's some a little bit of is unclear there, but there are seven or eight. And I think there probably are more and have been more and that we were not kept, you know, from the virus as long as it appeared because we are not testing very many people at all here. And the shortage of testing is a nationwide problem. Yes. The fact is that we've seen from the different places around the world where this has become

a problem before us, or at least where they've reacted before us, that the more testing, the faster you're able to isolate people who have it, who might be asymptomatic and not know. And it's really crucial that you test as many people as possible. And that's probably the number one thing the US needs to step up. And hopefully we will be able to soon, that is at least my understanding in our state.

I don't know. I don't know though. That is not my, I don't know. I know we all have that same hope. Along those lines, Justin, I thought we would take a quick moment to talk about the new Everly Well test. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Good old Everly Well stepping into the fray. So testing is one of the biggest problems we need to test because initially we thought you would know if you were sick and there were varying degrees of severity of illness. Now we realize that a lot of people won't know and testing is crucial.

Everly well is starting, I think on like Monday, unless it's, I don't know, it might already be available, but I felt like it was about to be available. They're going to allow you to purchase through the mail and at home COVID-19 test for $135. They are quick to stress that that $135 is cost to them. It is not in any way profitable. They are making $0 off this. They would like you to know. But they can't sell it for free because then they would lose money.

The test, as far as I can tell, I've been desperately trying in preparation for this episode to figure out exactly what is this, because we've talked about everything well in the show before. And they run some allergy food allergy testing that is incredibly, well, I was gonna say questionable, but is not real. I should be precise, it's not real. It does not actually indicate whether or not you are allergic to foods or intolerant of foods and should not be used, is not recommended

by any medical society. And so that immediately makes you question any kind of testing they would put out otherwise. As far as I can tell what they send you with the COVID-19 test is just the ability to collect an nasal swab. And then you send it back to them and they send it to one of their labs. They work with a number of certified labs throughout the country who are already running these COVID-19 tests. They would just also run yours. It's just a different way of getting it done as opposed to having it done at a hospital. So if that part is accurate, the machine that's running the test, I would think would be

correct. They say it's a viral PCR. That is the test, I would think would be correct. They say it's a viral PCR. That is the test that we would like them to do. That part of it sounds legitimate, but I don't know when I tried to find out sensitivity and specificity numbers, I couldn't get it. I couldn't find any information. Couldn't get any information. So again, that's a guess.

The bigger problem I think is the collection part. Justin, have you ever had a respiratory swab and nasal, a nasal friendial swab for respiratory almost no? The way that they do these swabs is they take a big Q tip, basically, and they stick it really far up your nose. Way farther than you think somebody should be sticking something up your nose. You probably didn't even know the tube went back as far as you explained it to me. It doesn't seem right.

No, when you look at how far the diagrams as they explain, like how to collect them, and I have read through this. I don't actually do them. Often in our office, it's one of the nurses who'll collect the samples or in our hospital. But we've all kind of been trained on how to do them in this situation. It is not something that you, as a lay consumer at home, I think would necessarily be skilled at doing. To yourself, especially if you're...

Exactly. You know, it will be uncomfortable and you're going to be concerned that you're poking things, you shouldn't be poking. I doubt anyone could do any harm to themselves, although humans are capable of anything. But my bigger concern is, if you don't get a decent sample because it is so uncomfortable, then you're going to get a false negative result. And then you might think you don't have it when you do, which is bad. And they have two very small studies to try to support this method of collection, this

like self-collection at home kind of thing. And I do not feel they are powerful enough to in this, at this moment in history when knowing whether or not you have it is so important, this feels very uncertain and shaky to me and not like something that I would recommend. So, these are the same tests. These are not the sort of like instant tests that we've been, that those are what's in short supply, right? Yeah, well, I mean, you send it away to a lab and you can do the viral PCR, which might,

it might be quick to run it, but you're talking the turnaround time as you got to mail it to them. Right. But the thing, but this is what I'm trying to get to the heart of is like, obviously the short, the quick turnaround tests are Are in short supply and they are hard to come by right? Yes, for instance Right, right are hard to come out. This is not gumming up that supply chain No, I don't see any I don't see any way. This is necessarily harming that supply chain

um, I I do feel like Since we have been promised by the government that the test will be free, it does seem odd to offer them in a roundabout way through everything well because the government aided with this process. It seems weird to offer them through everything well for $135 a pop, which most consumers I think will not be able to buy. I mean, especially if you consider like, if we wanted to do that, we'd have to buy four

of them. Yeah. You know, that's, that's a, that's very pricey. Well, and I'll say that they've pointed out over and over again. It's not profitable for them, but at the same time, you know, how helpful was it? Right. So somebody is getting in it is. Right. Somebody is getting that money. Yes.

Someone is getting the 135 bucks a test. But the bigger problem is that it is not hard to get a test that you can run and know the answer to right away. And in other places in the world, they are doing tests where they give you the answer pretty quickly as to whether or not it's positive. What we're looking at right now, just ordering tests normally here is three to four day turnaround, which is tough. It's easier if patients are in the hospital to know where they are that whole time at least,

although of course we'd prefer they not be because then they wouldn't be a sick. But where are people going while they're waiting? So at this point, I think there's so many question marks about that company and that allergy, that food allergy test or food sensitivity testing, whatever they want to call it. That's so, that's bad science and bad science. And that means bad faith to me. And that makes them so untrustworthy as a company that they would stand behind something that is untrue. It makes it really difficult for me to trust them with something so vital as this COVID testing. I mean, that's, I'm not saying that the test, if you got it and did it appropriately, would be naturally wrong, it may well work, but how can I trust them

with their history is what I'm saying. Yeah, I would, I'll be less diplomatic. Don't, I would, because I'm not a doctor and no one cares what I think. Don't trust these people. Don't give them a dime. Don't let them handle something that's important for you. Like I know that the alternative is also miserable.

Like they're not knowing and why I'm you. But also like I would say you may not know if you meet, tell me if this is correct or not because I'm talking kind of about my butt, but you may not know if you meet the criteria. And if not, you could be blowing $135 and then the next week, you know, still be wondering, right? Like it, it, it, you know, that's the thing. If you don't collect the sample right, you won't get an accurate result. And how will you feel confident that you did? And so, I mean, I guess if it comes back positive,

I guess it's that kind of test. If it came back positive, I would say it probably is positive. That's probably fair. Again, though, I don't know the sensitivity or specificity of of test. If it came back positive, I would say it probably is positive. That's probably fair. Again, though, I don't know the sensitivity or specificity of the test. I can't find those numbers, but I would assume if you got a positive, it is positive, so it could be helpful, but if you got a negative,

I don't know that I would rule it out. I don't know that I would feel comfortable just because I think it would be very difficult for me to swab myself and I know how deep it's supposed to go. But I think it would be very difficult for me to swab myself and I know how deep it's supposed to go. But I think it would be very difficult for me to do it to myself and I am a medical professional. I have read the instructions I've been trained. How hard would it be for somebody who's just got you I assume you'll probably have a sheet of paper with instructions and pictures or whatnot. It will still be very difficult. So.

Let's take a quick break there at this point. And when we come back, we can talk more about Sydney's and your personal experiences. I also want to talk about social distancing. All right. Let's go to the Belinda Mountain. All right, let's go. The medicines, the medicines that I skill in my cards for the mouth.

So we're back. Sid, what do you want to talk about first? You want to talk about social distancing? You want to talk about? Yeah, I want to briefly comment on that. When we did our episode on quarantine and then previously just on COVID in general, I wasn't necessarily calling for quarantine. And I still would say that quarantine

is something different than what we're asking people to do. If you are not social distancing, please let, I hope this helps convince you that you should. If you are, thank you, you can like sit back and relax for the next minute. God, if you listen to this show, but aren't like, that is a wild, I have to imagine that's a very thin sliver of the vent diagram. Evangelying Lily, thank you so much for listening. It's a pleasure to have you, but. Let me just preface with, I know it sucks I know I know I get it. I agree it does Justin and I love to travel we love to go places we have a whole life structure

around being able to you know take our kids and go see things and do things we love that That's a depend on it. I mean, financially, like, we've already canceled several shows and may need to cancel more or not schedule more, more accurately, because that obviously, like, we're far from the hardest hit by this, but it, you know, we get it as we're saying for sure. It sucks to have to stay inside all day, although you can go outside, I should clarify that. That's one thing I have to add. We grew in outside for a little bit today

because it was like in the mid 70s here and that was very helpful. Yeah, as long as you're not hanging out with people that you're not inside with, I mean like when Justin and I went outside we did not stand six feet from each other. But if you're gonna go somewhere where there's a lot people, I would still try to maintain a safe distance. I know, like, my sister Taylor is jogging and they said that when they were at the jogging track,

people were still maintaining six feet from each other. So, I mean, you can be outside. I would say, like, for us, front air backyard is all we're feeling comfortable with. We haven't gone much else. Obviously, if you need food or supplies of some sort to survive, which we all do, you're gonna have to make quick runs to the grocery store or to the pharmacy, maybe you need medication, things like that.

But I would try to keep those trips short and rare. And I would try to make sure that when you do, you're practicing as much handwashing. A lot of places will provide like sanitary wipes if you need to use like a shopping cart or something like that, wiping down the handles. And then you gotta keep six feet from everybody to see. As hard as that is.

I mean, that sounds, well, it sounds ridiculous. I'm real good at it. I've been training my entire life for this. But when you consider that, I mean, this just is not something that at least in our lifetimes, we've really, that we've encountered. So if it feels like, well, anybody, right? Anybody's on the hook. And if you're thinking like, well, how in the world we've never

had to do this before, why would we do it now? Exactly. We've never had to do it before. But we do now. It's wild said to think that we did the poll. You know what I keep thinking about? I keep thinking about the polio episode. And in the polio episode, we, I think we briefly talked about like,

they shut down all the swimming pools. And we were like, I, I remember like, wow, that's what a, wow, that's what a... Wow, can you believe it? All the swimming pools. What? Everything is shut to... I was surprised by swimming pools being closed. That's nothing. And it really, we kind of alluded to it. Back in 1918 during the Spanish flu, a lot of social distancing took place back then. Most of us probably do not remember that firsthand. And it was very variable depending on where you were, how much social distancing was taking place. I think the closing of schools, universities, I hopefully that has been a big wake up call. In our state, restaurants and bars have now been closed,

along with just now swans and barbershops. I think that all, quote unquote, non-essential businesses will probably be closed soon. And in many places where you're listening, that might be true as well. And I know, again, that there are some people who, even now, are saying, well, this seems like an overreaction.

It's not, this is what we need to do as hard as it is. This is what we should be doing. I mean, we have, that's the scariest thing about it. We have no idea. Like we, because of the lack of testing, like, we have no clue. Yeah, you don't, you don't know who out there has it. And this is just, this is the only, this has been proven to work. This is the only option we have at the moment is wash your hands and stay apart.

And that includes, you can't have get together in your houses. Um, there was, there were some people at work talking about, should we have a meeting of the book club? And I said, no, no, you can do a virtual book club. You can all read your books at home and then Skype each other about them. You can you can have a giant group text about them. No, you can't have a book club. You can't do that stuff. Again, I know it's hard, but you've got to take it seriously. And if you know somebody who isn't taking it seriously, like

reach out with a friendly hand and say a virtual friendly hand. Don't actually touch each other Stay six feet apart and say Can I please Employ you could I please talk to you about this what what are what are your questions? What why do you not feel convinced? Let me help you understand if we stay apart we don't all get sick at the same time. And we in the medical community are going to be able to take care of the waves of sick people as they

come. That is the hopeful plan. And if that is the way things go, we'll all get through this a lot better. If everybody gets sick at the same time, because they insist on out to a restaurant or hanging out at each other's houses are going to spring break and partying if everybody gets sick at the same time We won't have enough equipment and staff and hospital beds and ventilators to take care of everybody and there will be unnecessary deaths. I Think and I think that message has been out there a lot, but if anybody is unsure, is this media hype, is this real, this is real.

And I am just a shocked as anyone that this is where we are. Yeah. I did not see this coming in January. I really didn't feel it would get to this point. So I were not medical futurists. We're not even medical historians. Let's, let's, I want to talk to you a little bit about I've been, you know, I've been talking a lot after you, you just by sort of roll of the dice, like we got back from our travel and then went

home and we've been at home since then, except Sid, just by sort of, happened stance is on hospital service this week. So she went into the office, you know. It's very different. I've always enjoyed inpatient medicine. I like the pace of it. I like the variety in family medicine.

We manage everybody all ages, all problems. And so I've always sort of looked forward to my weeks of inpatient medicine. I also work with a team of residents and students, usually although the students aren't allowed to come to school right now. But I always have really loved that part of my job. And it's wild how different the feel is the atmosphere

and you have to understand here we haven't been, again, in West Virginia, we haven't been really hit with what we assume is coming, a big wave of cases. I may be because we're not testing. I know there's a degree of what. There's so many different theories. I know there's a degree of what. There's so many different theories. I mean, that's about the graphic and social isolation.

Maybe we're out people out for the state, don't travel as much, possibly. And a lot of the cases here have been, I mean, the confirmed cases at least have been thankfully related. Travel related. As far as we can tell, as far as we can tell so far. So, you know, it, so far we have not have not been hit by a bunch of cases all at once, but it's

very ominous. There's a deep sense of foreboding about whether or not we're going to be prepared and how we're going to cope with this. In case you're not familiar with West Virginia demographics, which you're probably not. We're in older state. We have, I believe the highest chronic disease burden, like, you know, percentage wise,

like per person, or at least one of the highest. So it is any, so even people who aren't above that, that kind of, we know that this is a disease that is worse the older you are, although it does affect younger people too. We have a high degree of people who are under that age limit who still carry a high chronic disease burden. So therefore, more susceptible to the severe forms of this disease. And we have a lot of fears about what happens if we do have a lot of cases all at once. If it did take root in one of our nursing homes or something, it's very, I think a lot of

people are very scared. Everybody is being incredibly cautious, which is a good thing. Hand washing, we're all watching each other, we're all singing together when we wash our hands. Somebody wants to call me, is that I assume it's when you... No, we're doctors, we're boring, we just sing happy birthday. I do Liz. Oh, but other people sing happy birthday. So I sing along I know I'm I'm not cool. I just pretend We all have discussed at length are various decontamination stations at home Talk about that. Talk about when you get home. So no, we don't know this. I don't know if the We don't know of and I don't know if the

We don't know of and it have not known of any Cases I don't there may or may not be a case where I work right? It's not confirmed It's not confirmed again the testing is taking like three or four days to turn around and so It's very difficult to know if if we're being exposed to it or not We have of course I think that in this area, the medical community has done an excellent job of coming together to come up with screening criteria a way to separate and isolate patients who are of concern to protect medical personnel and to protect our patients. Like, for instance, when I get to work every morning before any of us are allowed to see patients, we go have our temperature checked and registered. We have to, and it has to be signed in. Like, I can't,

I can't get away with not, not that I'm trying to, but like you have to, to make sure everybody's a febrile. And then obviously everybody's taking the precautions we can if we actually have to see a patient of concern. You've probably heard a lot about the shortages the country is experiencing and impersonal protective equipment. PPE, PPE. PPE is that acronym? And that is definitely true.

In order to go into these rooms, although I know this has been a shifting issue, what exactly do you need to wear? Ideally, a gown, a disposable gown, gloves, a face mask, a lot's been made of the N95 masks. And recently the CDC downgraded it to a surgical mask. Most people do not feel comfortable with that. And I think the science says the only thing that's 100% foolproof would be like a respirator. Like you've probably seen in movies, like on the biohazard rooms and stuff.

A face shield or goggles, although ideally a face shield, like the plastic shield that comes down will be better. And we should be wearing that whenever we see any of these patients. I have not experienced the shortages, although everybody's trying to be very careful about reusing what you can, saving what you can, because we expect that there will be shortages when the patients start coming.

Does everybody's kind of waiting for? I think that's what it is. It's the anticipation. We do not, we are not so naive as to believe that we're not going to get it here. And we're nervous about the fact that we're not testing so we don't know where it is. You know, it's just out there somewhere and it's invisible. Everybody's having to wear the hospital scrubs, which is interesting. I never realized how many people were buying nicer scrubs Until I looked at everybody and went why does it why do we all look so shlubby myself included because we're all wearing hospital scrubs And they don't fit as I've said before if they do not fit like they do on grace anatomy And when I get home every day I

Leave as much stuff as I can in my car, which for now is just like the contaminated place, but we don't go anywhere. So nobody ever gets in it but me. But when I get out, I have like a little decontamination corner of the garage, where I strip completely, I bag up all my clothes, I go ahead and I have some Chlorox wipes that I wipe down like the things I'm gonna bring inside

the house like my phone in my watch, my water bottle, those kinds of things. And so I wipe everything down with chlorox wipes, and then I run quickly, bathroom to like wash off and shower off and wash my hands and get as clean as I can, or at least until I feel clean, do a thorough wash down. And that's kind of my decontamination routine. I know some physicians in areas where there are more cases or who are on kind of the front lines like our ER physicians, and not just physicians, I should say all medical staff. I've taken to staying away from their families, they're setting up like little like beds in the garage or the basement or somewhere else. We haven't done that at this point because we haven't really been exposed to it as far as I know.

But I know some people have had to do that. And that's important to remember, I talk a lot about physicians because I am one and it as far as I know. But I know some people have had to do that. And that's important to remember, I talk a lot about physicians because I am one and so it's what I know. But all of our healthcare personnel are coming and working and all over the country, all of the world are saving lives. Our doctors, our nurses, our medical assistants, our respiratory therapists, their're physical therapists, they're an occupational therapist, they're phlebotomists, all of the texts, the radiology texts, and the lab texts,

and all these different people who are coming, are janitorial staff, who's cleaning constantly, I see them all out cleaning the handrails, and door knobs, and everything constantly, are receptionists, everybody, who works in the medical system, they're coming and they're doing their jobs and doing the best they can to keep you safe. But I've never seen my colleagues scared ever. I've been in a lot of rooms,

I've been in negative pressure rooms, I have been exposed to a lot of things, I've never felt scared things, I've never felt scared and I think a lot of us do now. It's weird. It's it's it's something I have never experienced in my career. So any other like in terms of things people can do because it is it doesn't seem like there's a lot especially for us non-physicians. And we know all this, I mean, social distancing. I, anything else. I mean, the number one thing you can do is just stay home. Don't be tempted to, I'll go over to my friend's house

just for a little bit, just don't, please, please. It's the best thing you can do if you wanna help us out who are going to take care of people. And if you want to help out like, you know, your grandparents, your elderly neighbors, your immunocompromised friend, like, you know, if you're a young healthy person, good, then I hope I help you don't get sick. Or if you get it, I hope you get a mild form, but there are people who are less likely to. So stay home, wash your hands. I think we've said it before. Soap and water work great.

It doesn't need to be hand sanitizer. Soap and water actually is the better option. That's better, right? It drinks down the... Yeah, so I mean hand sanitizer works. If you don't have soap and water, use the hand sanitizer, but wash your hands, wash them thoroughly, 20 seconds,

sing happy birthday twice, that's the standard. All the time. What else? Oh, a couple of things to know. This is not the time to be hoarding while it is good to try to limit your runs to the store and buy a little bit more than what you need. Everybody, there are a lot of people out there

who need, for instance, like formula for their babies or baby wipes or diapers or toilet paper or milk or bread. And I don't think it does society a service to buy all of it, especially formula. There have been so many people who have not been able to find formula for their kids. I saw a recipe online that somebody was passing around for how to make homemade formula and come on, like we're better than that, you know, I mean we can do better than that.

And if you are somebody who's experiencing that, you can look on the can, there's a number you can call and they'll ship you some. But still. And it's the same with medicine. So you're going to hear a lot of rumors about something that works, a secret cure, a secret medicine that doctors know works now and that somebody discovered. Notably, there's a medicine called Plaquenil or hydroxychloroquine or you may have just in chloroquine which has been investigated. It's a chloroquine we use for malaria, plaquinoid, hydroxychloroquine we can use for lupus. And there are people who depend on this medication to live already, who take it and need it. There was some very mild correlation with taking this and doing better with the severe, moderate to severe

forms of the disease. And it is under investigation. There is no evidence right now that if you are well and asymptomatic that you need to take it, so please do not buy it. If you are someone who can prescribe, please do not prescribe it to your friends and family to have just in case. We're creating a shortage of a medication that people need to live. So if you see that, no, we don't know that yet. And there is no benefit to you getting your hands

on it and hoarding it. Please don't do that. You're taking medicine from someone who needs it. Same thing with, I think the only other things I've heard out there are like, should we stop taking a blood pressure medicine called an ACE inhibitor? Right now, the evidence says, no, don't stop taking your blood pressure medicine unless a doctor tells you to, so please don't do that. And then I think there was a lot of information going around about anti-inflammatory medicines like ibuprofen and whether or not they make COVID worse. The evidence is very weak for that. Again, if you're rarely nervous

and you have a headache, just I guess take a seat of medicine instead. But I mean, I don't know why anybody needs to take IB Profin, but again, these things, these things are being blown out of proportion, not just by like Facebook memes, but unfortunately by some head government officials, maybe like the head government official,

and that's not necessarily where you need to be getting your information. Trust the CDC, trust the World Health Organization, talk to your local health department, talk to your local physicians in your community. I know our community of doctors has come up with, you know, screening, criteria, and protocols for everything, for inpatient, for outpatient, for the community,

for how we're going to cope with this. We're being very proactive to try to address this and serve everybody as best as we can. And, you know, I would not look to social media for accurate information about this right now. Now, I said a lot of people are saying elderberry has been really effective. Where are we at on that?

Are you really going to poke the bear with elderberry? No, please don't use elderberry. If you make up some BS herbal solution to this, like we will, this will be over one day, and but it will not be over for us here at Saabones. We will continue to come for you. You should, you should, I said before that you should get your flu vaccine. This remains true that you should still get your flu vaccine. Maybe combine that trip with another trip.

Yeah, you're going anyway. Like they have it at the local pharmacy, get your flu vaccine. Please don't go somewhere in danger. You're like, expose yourself in order to get it. But it's safe to do that. You also, it is safe to donate blood. Yeah. And that is becoming a problem because people are afraid to go donate blood.

And understandably, right? We've told you all to stay home So I got it, but it is it is still safe to donate blood and please do that if you were capable I know the American Red Cross is experiencing some shortages because of that and We all need to to do our do our best and be our best Maybe more so than we've been called in our lifetime to take care of each other. One thing that actually Sydney and I haven't talked about, we knew we were going to do this episode. I don't know what the next episode of saw bones is. For me, it seems weird to not talk about this if it's happening. That flip side, you may want to break from it.

I completely get that. It is, I mean, folks, if it has been all you thought about and or talked about, like you're in our loan, it is definitely that way here at the McAulay household where we have to force ourselves to engage with survivor for 45 minutes just to give ourselves like a break from actively obsessing constantly. The main thing, yeah, I can understand it's hard for me to talk about anything else, but I think we all do need to take care of ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And part of that is like taking a break. I will do my best to, by next week, have something that is not about coronavirus for us to

discuss. But I work. The pastings are moving. Maybe it will be about coronavirus, you know? It seems, well, it seems disingenuous to talk about anything else. It's really, if you're feeling in shock with how fast everything's shifted, you're not alone. I think probably we're all feeling that way.

You know, I don't think any of us expected to be living in times like these. But if you are doing what you should do and staying home a lot, please don't do what I do, which is eat tortilla chips all day. I don't know why that's all I want right now. I don't know what that symptom is of, I don't think it's of coronavirus, but all I want to do is eat tortilla chips. Don't like do your best routines help us all.

These are gonna be new routines, but routines help us cope with life. Try to get out of bed at some point, get dressed, get cleaned up for the day. For me, a shower does wonders. Maybe that's what we should do next week. I've been basically living as a shut-in for the past decade. Maybe I could just give all my hot, my hot tips for the

shut-in life that I've willingly engaged in. I think that would be helpful because I know for a lot of people, I don't mind to hang around the house a lot, but for a lot of people, this is very challenging and that's, there's no reason that you don't, this is very challenging. And there's no reason that you can own that. That's okay, it's okay to admit that. You don't have to say like, well, all I have to do is hang around the house so I have no right to complain.

No, still do it, but you can complain about it. It's not. Just remember that like, here are the two things you can claim to. One, there is almost no matter what scenario you're in, there is absolutely someone who has it as hard or harder as a result of this. It is literally affecting everybody. And we're all, but the flip side of that is this is one of those rare things where you can actually impact it. Like you can do something with the feelings that you have

and that is like you can help, you can stay home, you can practice good hygiene, et cetera. Yeah, flattening the curve is not rhetoric. We know that this is very communicable and we know that a lot of us are going to get it The key is that we don't all get it at once. So that is not that is there's not hype We do need to flatten the curve. It will help protect us. It will help keep us all safe It will help more of us

Live to see the other side of this which is the ultimate goal and Please work to help those in your community who have been impacted by this, not directly by the virus itself, but indirectly by the closing of everything that's occurred. I know we have been trying to, like, look, what local restaurants can we order food from? You can do, like, pick up or deliver a lot of places or, like, we'll take it out to your car. You don't even have to go inside. But look for that in your community.

I know there are a lot of funds being started to support, like, not just the service industry, but like the entertainment industry. A lot of people who are out of jobs because of this. And obviously more needs to be done for that on a government level. I don't, you know, we don't have that impact, but you can call your Congress people,

you can remind them that shutting all of the bars and restaurants down was great and the right thing to do, but the only way that it works and long term has got effects is if it's coupled with... Makes the sacrifice worth it for the people that lost their jobs. It has to be coupled with, we need to coupled with let's we need to stop rent payments We need to stop mortgage payments. We need to we need student loan forgiveness

We need health care for everybody. I mean you have to couple it with these things or you haven't ultimately done All the good you can so That is gonna do it for us this week on solbona Thank you to the taxpayers for use their song medicines as the intro and outro of our program. And thanks to you for listening, hang in there. This too shall pass. So now you're going to be able to come back to this episode. And well, you'll probably skip this one. I couldn't think of it. I wouldn't blame you, but it's going to, we will get through this.

Yes. We will get through this. They're working on a vaccine. It's not going to be ready for a while, because you want it to work and you want it to be safe. But they're working on one. We know that vaccines work and save lives. Yes. So.

Save us vaccines. Save us vaccines again. Yeah, ride to our rescue or undeserving rescue one more time. Okay, that's gonna do it first. Stay hopeful. Yeah, stay hopeful. Stay home. That's gonna do it for us for this week. So until next time, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm sitting McRoy. And as always, don't drill a hole in your head. Alright! Audience supported.