Covid articles from Medscape

[SueDonim]

Medscape (https://www.medscape.com) is a site that reports medical news and is a good source of information for what is going on in the world of medicine. It is American and aimed at medical professionals so not all content is relevant or of interest to us in NZ, but when the content is interesting, it is usually more readable than the original research articles that it reports.

Here are a few items about covid:

Nearly 1 in 5 Adults Who Had COVID Have Lingering Symptoms: US Study https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976069
Best to stay clear of covid if at all possible.


COVID-19 Tied to Increased Risk for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976244
Covid is a risk, but so is flu and bacterial pneumonia. Best to stay clear of all of them I think.

No Zinc Benefit Seen in COVID Patients, Registry Analysis Finds https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/972786
I think zinc might have been the subject of one of Nurse Dr Campbell's videos.

Long COVID Neuropsychiatric Deficits Greater Than Expected https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/974840

'Alarming' New Data on Disordered Sleep After COVID https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/975185

Diabetes Tied to Risk of Long COVID, Too https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976349

And there is plenty more at https://www.medscape.com/resource/coronavirus.

[harm_less]

Take Medscape information with high scepticism. They are largely funded by pharmaceutical companies and are criticised by doctors. The article dismissing zinc as a treatment confuses its use to be a treatment rather than an immune system improving supplement and comes as no surprise when zinc is a nickle and dime health product which if identified as useful poses a conflict with pharmaceutical 'cures'.

[SueDonim]

Take Medscape information with high scepticism. They are largely funded by pharmaceutical companies and are criticised by doctors. The article dismissing zinc as a treatment confuses its use to be a treatment rather than an immune system improving supplement and comes as no surprise when zinc is a nickle and dime health product which if identified as useful poses a conflict with pharmaceutical 'cures'.

"Take Medscape information with high scepticism". There's no harm about being sceptical about anything, but Medscape is a great deal better than most of the sources referred to on here and has a high rating on MediaBias/FactCheck (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/medscape) with no failed fact checks in the last 5 years.

"They are largely funded by pharmaceutical companies and are criticised by doctors". Like Wikipedia is a well-researched evidence-based resource? I think not. It's a good place for basic information and has a lot better referencing and content than it used to, but it is still essentially user-moderated.

Having said that, yes, it mentions criticism from doctors in 2016 - 6 years ago which seems to be from just 2 people. And yes, I'm aware that a few years ago doctors were also criticisng it for being too pop-culturish. But I think since then it has swung back. If you are a doctor you would read it in conjunction with your background knowledge. For laymen it is a great deal better than most sites.

Receiving funding from pharmaceutical companies is not a huge issue so long as the conflict of interest is stated. Funding does not always have to influence content, and even if it does, again, those who know the subject will read accordingly. If publishing had to be free of conflict of interest and/or pharmaceutical company funding, then nothing would ever happen and we would still be back in the 19th century.

"The article dismissing zinc as a treatment confuses its use to be a treatment rather than an immune system improving supplement and comes as no surprise when zinc is a nickle and dime health product which if identified as useful poses a conflict with pharmaceutical 'cures'."   The study was about people taking zinc as a general supplement or as a treatment and simply measured their covid outcome. Your use of the words "immune system improving supplement" is bordering on the misinformation we so often see in advertising for "health" products, as though everyone's immune system needs boosting. Zinc is important for immune system health and deficiency is clearly a problem but, like many supplements pushed within the "natural health" sector, it's just an unnecessary expense for people who don't need it.

[king1]

I wonder what's up with the warnings on that wikipedia page, it says "too closely associated with the subject", but medscape are not going to trash their own Wikipedia page

[C_T_Russell]

Medscape (https://www.medscape.com) is a site that reports medical news and is a good source of information for what is going on in the world of medicine. It is American and aimed at medical professionals so not all content is relevant or of interest to us in NZ, but when the content is interesting, it is usually more readable than the original research articles that it reports.

Here are a few items about covid:

Nearly 1 in 5 Adults Who Had COVID Have Lingering Symptoms: US Study https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976069
Best to stay clear of covid if at all possible.


COVID-19 Tied to Increased Risk for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976244
Covid is a risk, but so is flu and bacterial pneumonia. Best to stay clear of all of them I think.

No Zinc Benefit Seen in COVID Patients, Registry Analysis Finds https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/972786
I think zinc might have been the subject of one of Nurse Dr Campbell's videos.

Long COVID Neuropsychiatric Deficits Greater Than Expected https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/974840

'Alarming' New Data on Disordered Sleep After COVID https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/975185

Diabetes Tied to Risk of Long COVID, Too https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976349

And there is plenty more at https://www.medscape.com/resource/coronavirus.

Well we are all screwed then, because we are all going to get covid sooner or later regardless of your vaccine status.

As far as zinc goes, I had been taking it for months prior to catching covid and still got it.
I was on vitamin D and everything else under the roof that I could find.

The best it does is perhaps strengthen your immune system, but its no cure or preventative.