This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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we go, welcome to HamTalk Live Call in, let's
talk, Neil's your guy HamTalk Live, here we go
it's time for HamTalk Live episode number 244.
COVID research update for hams reported live
on Thursday January 28 2021. I'm your host Neil
Rapp WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to another
episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined
by Dr. Scott Wright KZeroMD. And we'll take your
calls later on in the show. Last week, Michael
Coulter, W8CI, was here to talk about the second
cancellation of the Dayton Hamvention. If you
missed that show, you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive
.com or on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube.
You can also catch the rebroadcast of HamTalk
Live. On WTWW, that's 5085 AM Saturday afternoons
and that usually runs about 3 .30 PM Eastern
time. Lots and lots and lots of announcements
here before we start. We'll try to make it quick.
Winter field day is this weekend. Check out winterfieldday
.com. There are rule changes for COVID -19, so
make sure you check that out. The a .m. Rally
is the following weekend. That's the first weekend
of February They encourage everybody to get on
a .m. Whether it's vintage gear or with vacuum
tubes or a new SDR doesn't matter get on a .m.
160 80 40 20 15 10 6 meters 0 100 Zulu Saturday,
that's 7 p .m. Eastern on Friday the 5th until
700 Zulu on Monday the 8th, which is 2 a .m.
on Monday, February 8th. So check that out. The
Orlando hamcation special edition QSO party will
be a couple of weeks after that. That's Saturday,
February 13th from 10 until 10 Eastern time,
10 a .m. to 10 p .m. The special edition webinars
will be from 10 a .m. To 4 p .m. Check that out
hamcation .com and of course the virtual ham
expo from QSO today will return on March 13th
and 14th They've been working on making that
better. They have a kit building workshop you
can do you can order it online and have it ready
to go and build it live and They're also going
to have some AMSAT booth with representatives
from the 30 AMSAT societies around the world
and nine sessions by AMSAT experts. The tickets
are $10 for the early bird. And you get the live
two -day period as well as the 30 -day on -demand.
So check that out at QSOtodayhamExpo .com. All
right. Well, get your questions ready to go for
Scott. If you're listening to us live on Thursday
night, you can give us a call after I talked
to Scott for a while. Let me give you the telephone
number so you have it ready to go. It's 859 -982
-73. 73. We'll give that number out again here
in just a second and several times later on in
the show again that number 859. You can also
tweet us, it's at HamTalk Live on Twitter. And
if you're listening live on Spreaker, you can
type in the comments and we've got a little chat
going on in there. So you can do that and I'll
be back with Scott right after this word from
Icom America right here on HamTalk Live. Happy
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Visit IcomAmerica .com slash amateur for more
information on Icom radios. Coming to you live
from the glass -enclosed Faraday box, here's
Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live. Welcome back
to HamTalk Live, thanks to ICOM America for sponsoring
the show once again tonight. And tonight, Dr.
Scott Wright, KZeroMD, joins us on the Orlando
Amateur Radio Club and Hamcation Zoom line. Dr.
Wright is the past editor of the National Contest
Journal from Rochester, Minnesota. He worked
for the Mayo Clinic. teaching cardiology which
often takes him abroad where ham radio can go
with him he's an excellent contest or been on
several de -expeditions we met when we were kids
in Louisville taking our license exams and he
is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and
he was the co -principal investigator of the
COVID -19 Convalescent Plasma Research Study
at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, which is what
he's here to talk about tonight. So Scott, welcome
back to the show. Neal, thank you. Always love
your introductions. I remember meeting you and
Louisville at the FCC testing session. We've
both come a long way since then, and it's just
nice that we've been able to renew our friendship
in the last 15 years. do some fun things together.
Thanks for inviting me on. Yeah it has been a
lot of fun and I know you have been hard at work
with this project and it was it was a very visible
project to say the least and you know you had
a lot to to talk about and you've been on this
show and other shows talking about All of the
work that was going in and now the results are
out so We wanted to make sure you were back on
the show to tell us how this the story mostly
ends I guess I guess it doesn't totally end but
but to see what the results were on this and
how ham radio ties into all of this so Let's
see, that was April 23rd you were here talking
about that research and then two weeks ago the
New England Journal of Medicine, there's a journal
for you, the New England Journal of Medicine
publishes the results. So give us an update on
what happened with the study and what the results
were and then also a little bit about how HAMS
came through helping on this project. Be delighted
to Neil and thank you again and for having me
and our teams work on your show in April Let's
trace back to March April little almost 10 11
months ago now We were just in the beginnings
of an incredibly scary pandemic. We didn't have
really any therapies the time that we knew that
would work to help reduce the risks of dying
or progressing with kovat 19 and One of my colleagues
at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Michael Joyner had been asked
by the US Food and Drug Administration if he
could put together a team of scientists from
Mayo Clinic and other centers to test convalescent
plasma. Now many people are still wondering what
is convalescent plasma? Well, everyone knows
about blood donations and sometimes patients
get blood cells and sometimes they need plasma.
to help with the coagulation in their blood.
But convalescent plasma is a special form of
the plasma that has antibodies and other viral
fighting substances. And we had hypothesized
in the early spring that using it would help
patients with severely ill COVID -19. When we
started the study, Neil, we had two big issues
before us. One, we were expecting to enroll about
5 ,000 patients. And second, we didn't really
have a supply of convalescent plasma. And I made
a couple of media appearances on ham radio shows,
yours and Ham Nation, and subsequently learned
from our public affairs experts at Mayo Clinic
that those appearances garnered an incredible
amount of social media activity and likely resulted
in a lot of donation of people, of plasma from
people who had recovered from COVID -19. And
so the ham community really stepped up as they
always do during a time of crisis and donated
not just their time but their plasma, those who
had recovered from COVID. It turns out that one
of the individuals, one of the leaders at the
US Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Peter Marks
is also a ham operator. And we figured that out
right about the time I went on Ham Nation. And
we had a special bond after that and talked about
How Ham Radio helped us both to sort of relax
in our free time from the very stressful things
we were working on. Peter largely uses his radio
on his boat that he sails in the Chesapeake Bay
and was telling me about a QSO with a station
in Saudi Arabia on sideband and how impressed
he was with his vertical working on saltwater.
And I, of course, shared how I was up in the
black hole of southern Minnesota, north central
US, where propagation was not always strong.
I like to work Saudi Arabia, too, but it took
a lot more power than 100 watts in a vertical
for me to work Saudi Arabia. But I think the
flexibility that being a ham operator teaches
you, the problem -solving skills, the creative
way of thinking all contributed to how we worked
collectively together and collaboratively together
to solve this shortage of convalescent plasma,
to test the convalescent plasma. And then as
sort of the final you know, act of getting a
sub -study published from it. So like I said,
we were expecting about 5 ,000 patients over
the ensuing six months, but Neil, honestly, by
the end of April, we'd enrolled 5 ,000 patients
and we were shocked. at how the study just took
off like a Saturn V rocket launches. And it turns
out by the end of August, when the Food and Drug
Administration made their decision to issue an
emergency use authorization for convalescent
plasma, we'd enrolled a little over 105 ,700
patients. Yeah, it was just one of the largest
clinical studies done in history of medicine,
frankly. probably not the largest, but one of
the largest. We did it with a group at Mayo Clinic.
We assembled the first week of April. And I credit
the collaboration model of Mayo Clinic, the support
of our senior leadership, the dean of research,
our chief physician, who is our CEO, and others
who gave us the support and the access to IT
resources, website resources, and just personnel
who were temporarily furloughed. taken off work
but just didn't have the usual busy schedule
because we had to close our clinical practice
for a couple of weeks as we anticipated a huge
surge so that we didn't run out of personal protective
equipment or ICU bed space. And so we were able
to recruit a lot of talent who quickly helped
us and got everything going. And many of them
stayed with us through the duration of the study.
And I would love to give you a list of names.
Many of them are authors on the New England Journal
paper. But I would forget someone, and I don't
want to offend anyone. But let's just say that
it was a team effort. I'm here on your show tonight,
but I'm just one of several people. It's sort
of like Michael Coulter last week. He may be
the spokesperson of the Dayton Hamvention, but
there's a whole crew of people behind him. So,
you know, let me tell you what we found. So the
study was an observational pragmatic design,
but we knew that the plasma would likely contain
varying amounts of what we call neutralizing
antibodies to kill the COVID virus or weaken
it or to enhance your own immune action against
it. But we didn't know which units of plasma
would have high levels of neutralizing antibody,
which units of plasma would have medium levels
or low levels. In fact, the test to test for
those hadn't even been designed by the time we
were on your show. So our laboratory medicine
group, Dr. John Mills and Dr. Ellie Thielen,
at Mayo Clinic devised and designed these tests
in May and June so that we could actually test
a sample, not the entire 105 ,000 units, but
a sample of about 3 ,000, which we thought statistically
would give us sufficient power to see if the
use of high titer convalescent plasma resulted
in a reduction in mortality. So we gave the convalescent
plasma. We worked through 10 ,000 hospital sites
and 3 ,000 physicians. I'm sorry, I reversed
that. 3 ,000 hospital sites and 10 ,000 physician
PIs. So we had every hospital area in the United
States with the exception of five, one being
Bloomington, Illinois, and I forget where the
other four are, and including every US territory.
So every hospital in Puerto Rico, every hospital
in the Mariana Islands, in Guam, all the military
bases overseas were all part of this. The VA
system was part of it. Big consortiums like Hospital
Corporation of America joined and put all of
their hospitals into it. Almost all the major
academic hospitals did, but the study was largely
done at the small town hospitals across the US.
And we found, we gave the plasma to people who
were critically ill either in the ICU or thought
at risk to be needing to go to the ICU within
a few days. And of course we found that the people
who got the low titer plasma had about a 30 %
in hospital mortality, sorry, 30 % mortality
at 30 days, not in hospital, but 30 days. And
the group who got the... high titer plasma had
a 22 % mortality. So technically it was a 7 .3
% absolute risk reduction. And for people who
have background in epidemiology, like one of
your prior guests, Dr. Frank Howell or others
who may be listening, the number needed to treat
their 14 .5 or so, which is incredibly good in
medicine. We think if the number needed to treat
is 33 or lower, the drugs very effective or the
treatment doesn't have to be a drug. And what
we also found Neil was that Patients who were
not on a ventilator had a 36 % relative risk
reduction in their mortality. And patients on
a ventilator did not seem to benefit. There was
maybe a 5 % reduction, but it wasn't statistically
significant, but the 36 % was. So the overall
results showed a 25 % risk reduction, but it
was favoring the non -ventilated patients. Now,
we didn't test plasma in patients in the emergency
room or people at home, and those studies are
being done. They're led by the NIH, and we think
the answers will be out shortly. The UK just
finished their convalescent plasma study in critically
ill patients in the ICU, many of them on ventilators,
and basically replicated the same results we
did, that being on the ventilator doesn't help.
But I think the best way to summarize this is
to share a story I had from my own practice two
weeks ago. I was seeing a patient who needed
heart valve surgery. And I said to him, have
you had COVID? And he said, no. But he said,
my wife has. And my alerts went up because we
screen everyone for COVID infections, including
spouses, before we let them into our clinic.
And I said, when were you diagnosed with COVID?
She said, oh, it was in early December. And this
was, of course, just two weeks ago. And I said,
tell me more. And she said, I was really ill,
doctor. She said, I was in a hospital, and she
named a central Minnesota town. And she said,
I was in the ICU. And she said, my husband was
prohibited from visiting me. And he said, that's
right. I would call every day, or she would call
me. And she said, they told me one day, they
said, look, if you don't turn the corner soon,
you're not going to make it. And she said, but
you know, they gave me this thing. And you maybe
haven't heard of it, doctor. But she said, it's
plasma. And it has antibodies. And they gave
it to me. And two days later, I was out of the
ICU at home a few days later. And while we don't
make much of single stories, that summarizes
sort of our findings. And we kept hearing stories
and stories like that all through the study.
So we thought we might be onto something. And
we were absolutely relieved when the statistical
data and the peer review process of the New England
Journal, which is tough, you know, it's the world's
leading medical journal. They put you through
a very solid and appropriately hard peer review
and looked at our data. Of course did some revisions
as they would have requested and then they decided
to publish it and they pushed it out early online
so that the world could see it and start using
it. So that's the story and many things in life
contribute to giving us skills that help us to
do the important tasks that we're called upon
to do from time to time. And I have to say that
ham radio was very helpful for me and I think
Dr. Marks at FDA would agree it was helpful with
him as well. Well, I've had some great stories
to relate from all of this and I know that I've
talked to a few hams who donated plasma to this
project and tried to help out and it sounds like
it was very beneficial to the study and was saving
some lives and so we've got to love that. Well,
how do you see this treatment being used and
where do you think this is going to be used as
this goes on for a while longer? If I could just
give a shout out to everyone who's donated, they
are the true heroes and the true people who've
made a difference. We just designed the study
and did the science. We are deeply indebted to
the patients, the recovered patients who donated
plasma, who were selfless and altruistic and
kind. You know, we talk sometimes about American
exceptionalism and I look at how Americans donated
the plasma with no reimbursement. They asked
no questions. They put up with the hassles of
the donation and it just rekindles my faith in
this great country and what people can do when
we work together. Let me say this. We have treatments
today for COVID that we didn't have in April
and May. We, of course, have the vaccines now,
and I hope everyone will get vaccinated. I have.
I've taken both doses of a vaccine, had really
no side effects from it. And I hope anyone who
has the opportunity to get vaccinated will. The
myths about the vaccine are just that, myths.
And COVID is often a disease that leaves you
feeling pretty weak and exhausted, but it's not
lethal, but for a small percent of people it
is, and the vaccine can really protect you against
both severe COVID and lethal COVID, I think.
So let me just encourage all of the HamTalk Live
listeners to get vaccinated when they have a
chance. In the United States, we today have at
least three therapies for COVID -19 besides convalescent
plasma. We have remdesivir, which has now become
the standard. There are other antivirals that
are being used in combinations as a cocktail
with ermdesivir that I don't really know the
names of right now, but they're being used. We
have steroids, either corticosteroids or dexamethasone.
And then we have monoclonal antibodies, one being
made right near where you are at Eli Lilly in
Indiana. Now the monoclonal antibodies are really
like... They take the very best parts of plasma
and they take the antibodies that kill the COVID
virus against the spike protein and they enrich
it thousands fold so that you get a really good
dose. And this therapy is life -saving. It keeps
90 % or so of people out of the hospital. They
get it before they go in. And we have tremendous
access in the United States to this. So the need
for plasma in the U .S. is less today than it
was three or four months ago because we have
FDA approval of the monoclonal antibodies. And
that's why patients who get COVID can recover
so quickly. So I see convalescent plasma being
used in the patients for whom the monoclonals
are not available, especially if it's used early
in their hospital course, like the first couple
of days, or even before they get in the hospital
before they deteriorate. So it's worth talking
to your health care provider if you get COVID
and you think you're deteriorating. If monoclonal
antibodies are an option, it should be on remdesivir
and steroids and maybe plasma. But what we feel,
Neil, is that many, many countries and many places
in the world do not have access to the monoclonals
for a number of reasons, including financial
barriers, right? Because we have a wealthy country
in the US, so we can afford the doses. They're
probably $1 ,000 or $2 ,000 a dose. I don't really
know, but I'm guessing. But many countries just
don't have the kind of budgets to support that.
So plasma is a very inexpensive treatment that
those countries can generate because you just
collect blood from recovered COVID patients and
then you spin the plasma out, you test it for
a level of antibody, and then you save the plasma
that's got the highest levels of neutralizing
antibodies and use that. So you can treat about
three people for every donor you get. And so
as COVID evolves, if we get a new variant or
new strain that our current therapies don't work,
monoclonal plasma, I'm sorry, convalescent plasma
will emerge. That should be able to fight the
new strain as we get people who recover from
it. So it's a public health issue. We believe
that its greatest use will be outside the United
States and many countries where they have a blood
bank system, but they don't have the resources
for monoclonals. So at a high level view, that's
kind of where we see it being used now. All right,
very good. Well, one more question here and then
we're going to take a break. and take some uh...
questions uh... on the phone here date five nine
nine eight two seventy three seventy three and
uh... twitter and all that but uh... are there
still you mentioned a couple other actually already
uh... other studies that are still going on with
this and then uh... are there any ways that hams
can jump in and help here again yes uh... there
are at least two other studies i'm aware of going
on leeson praski from One of the New York City
hospitals and Schmem Schmoll at Hopkins are leading
studies with convalescent plasma as randomized
clinical trials. I believe their enrollments
are done, but if not, and you have an opportunity
to be in one of their studies, I would recommend
you consider participating. We also think that
it's worth still donating convalescent plasma
because we need it. We don't think that the demand
for it is predictable, meaning we've seen, I
think, 50 ,000 units used since we first had
the FDA -EUA. So that's a huge use of plasma.
And so there appears to be a strong demand for
it, even with the newer therapies. So we still
need lots of donors. And so I think hams can
donate plasma if they've had COVID and recovered,
or if they have a family member or a friend who
has had COVID, they can encourage them to donate.
And let's stay tuned. We're not out of the woods
yet with COVID. It's a terrible disease. It's
a huge pandemic. I believe that we're near the
end of the beginning of COVID and I think we're
going to turn the corner. I've seen modeling
data, Neil, that if we can get a million people
a day vaccinated through May. the number of deaths
should fall substantially. I mean, 99 .5 % reduction
by the summertime. And if that happens, and if
those models are true, and again, this is all
speculation, but if those models are true, then
it'll be a new day in the United States and in
the world when we can start doing that. So I
think what hams should do is get vaccinated,
continue to socially distance as they can, wear
a mask, be religious about it. You know, you
would never... operate on your transmitter, work
on your transmitter or your amplifier, or tune
your antenna with the RF on and the power on.
So with COVID, don't be out without a mask. It's
not a political statement. It's a public health
gesture that's there to save your life as much
as it is anyone else's life. Spend your life
wisely. You only get one, so to speak. So don't
take unnecessary chances. You know, be cautious
until this whole thing resolves. The pandemic
will go away. It'll follow the 1918 flu pandemic
pattern probably and be gone in another six to
18 months. I don't know how long, but we will
get through it. Let's just continue to support
one another, be on the air, have QSOs, socially
isolate, but operate. How's that? Hey, there
we go. And a public service announcement from
HamTalk Live. Do not open up the cage of your
amplifier and stick your hand in there. We both
know that from, we both know that, don't we?
Something about being licensed before you were
a teenager that helps you learn that. Yes, exactly.
All right, well, we're going to take a break
here. We're going to come back with Scott and
talk a little more about this and maybe some
other things too. We'll take your questions and
comments after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Jerry, what's up,
man? I haven't seen you at Sunbucks in a while.
I used to see you every morning getting coffee.
What's up? Well, I can't afford Sunbucks five
days a week anymore. I had to spend my money
on PL -259s. You know, those antenna projects
I've been meaning to do. I had to do them before
my HOA finds out I have antennas. That's too
bad, Jerry. I miss seeing you and catching up
over coffee. You should get your PL -259s from
Tower Electronics. They have great stuff. Jerry,
you're back. Oh, QRM Heterodyne Frappuccino.
That's a good choice. How's it going? Did you
get all those antennas up before the HOA police
showed up? Yeah, I got them all done. Thanks
for telling me about Tower Electronics. Now I
can have my coffee. I just saved a bunch of money
on my PL259s by switching to Tower Electronics.
Don't get caught without PL259s. Visit Tower
Electronics online at pl -259 .com or at a ham
fest near you or give them a call at 920 -435
-2973 and be sure to pick up some power poles,
adapters and cables too. Join the conversation.
Give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the
number to call is 859 -982 -7373. Or if you'd
rather type than talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live.
Now, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live.
At HamTalk Live, we use commercial breaks to
debate where the seeds for seedless watermelons
come from. Now, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk
Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. We'd like
to thank Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics
for sponsoring the show tonight to bring HamTalk
Live your way. Uh, they're planning on being
at the Dalton, Georgia ham fest, February 27th,
but you can still find them 24 seven at PL dash
two five nine .com. You can find ham talk live
at ham talk live .com every Thursday night at
nine PM Eastern time. And be sure to check us
out on. Facebook Twitter and Instagram and before
we get back to Scott and our phone calls It's
time for the ham talk live ham radio joke of
the week with Rick A radio wave walks into the
bar and asks for a beer. The bartender says,
here. But why the long phase? This has been the
Ham Talk Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week with
Rick Garrett in 9GSU. Tune in again next week
for another joke from Rick. Oh Scott, there he
goes. The long phase. I don't know how Rick comes
up with these jokes, but he's very talented.
Neil, you must be paying him exceptionally well.
he's getting paid twice what you're getting paid
to be on this show so oh no and i know what he's
getting let you know well it's time for your
phone calls oh go ahead no two times zero is
still zero right yes it is it is absolutely Well,
it's time for your calls right now. So if you
have a question or comment for Scott, give us
a call at 859 -982 -7373. I'll give you the number
here again in just a second. Or you can tweet
us. It's at HamTalk Live. And if you're on Spreaker,
you can type in the chat here. And if you're
listening to us on WTWW right now or on the podcast
edition or not here right now, it's not live.
So we're not. There. So, uh, we're taking the
live calls here and we already have one on the
line. Good evening. Welcome to hand talk live,
Andy. How are you fellas doing Scott and, uh,
Neil, it's good to hear you all on there. Uh,
Scott, I'm doing what I can. I just donated Tuesday
again. I think this is my last go around. Hopefully,
uh, you guys can get a handle on it and, uh,
uh, donated what? Oh, Seven months ago, I guess
we started this program and here I am still donating.
So this one goes toward the Fort Mead, I guess,
and they deviate out from there and see what
develops. My name's Andy, Alpha Alpha Zero Whiskey
X -ray. But hopefully we're doing the right thing.
What say ye? Andy, you are doing the right thing.
And on behalf of all the medical community, let
me thank you for being such a... kind and caring
person to donate. Your altruism is wonderful,
and I know this is so common among hams, and
you've really helped a lot of people. Two to
three people will benefit from each time you
donate, so thank you for all you're doing. And
I like your call. You must have been in the zero
land at one point and enjoyed our great propagation
and our best season of the year winner. Yeah,
it was pretty good over in Colorado. I was over
there with Amanda and all that crew. uh... at
that time i was kill echo zero alpha yankee juliette
and then uh... a hurricane took me away to puerto
rico with val and we ended up over there and
i became kp for alfalfa november and now i'm
back stateside i'm alfalfa zero whiskey x -ray
and uh... of course it stands for andy anderson
and the last two is uh... weather i'm always
involved with the weather some i said don't blame
me for the cold weather up there you chose where
you live and i i'm where i'm at But yeah, I've
done just about all the donations I could just
about do this last batch. I went over to Kankakee
and did plasma there. And then I got to do a
blood draw in two weeks down in Florida that
goes to Fort Meade. And they're going to look
at that, see what's going on with my system,
why I still have high antibodies, but no infection.
So we'll see what develops with that. That's
great. Well, congratulations on having a good
immune response. Yeah, well I have to admit Andy
is one of those people that I said I know I know
some people have donated Andy was telling me
about it. We were gonna try to get get together
He's back over here in the Indiana area and we
just kept missing each other. But one of these
days we're gonna catch up Andy Yeah, we can do
that that lemon custard sounding better all time
Let's see, is that chocolate mousse? Has that
lemon custard? Is that where that was? I don't
know. It was downtown Bloomington there and I
can't remember if that place is still there.
I believe that chocolate mousse. So they've got
a new building, but they're still there. So we'll
have to do that sometime. Well, Andy, thank you
so much for calling in and thank you for your
contribution to this effort too. Well, like Scott's
saying, we can win this thing. We can beat it.
And just take everybody to believe that and stay
on the wagon with us and just remember it. You
know, we're going to do it. We are. And thank
you also for all of your help down in the Puerto
Rico disaster. And you're just helping everybody
out. We really appreciate all that you've done
and it's that ham radio spirit and I applaud
everything that you've been doing here, especially
these last few years that has been a little more
public, but we really appreciate it. Okay, we'll
say seven three to you both and let somebody
else get in there and talk a little bit and a
little bit of education a little bit storytelling
and Everything gets settled up that way. Appreciate
you being on We'll take it easy seven three.
We'll talk at you later Thank you 73 Thank You
Andy seven three 8 5 9 9 8 2 73 73 is the phone
number to give us a call We have a few minutes
here to take some calls. So give us a ring at
8 5 9 9 8 2 73 73 Over in the chat and and my
and my text on my cell phone which which would
don't normally give that number out, but this
person has it. Ryan, KD9DAB says loves to hear
numbers like that and love and listen to the
show tonight. And thanks to Dr. Scott Wright,
KZ0MD. So thanks for listening, Ryan. I hope
you enjoy it. And Chris, AA4CB is tuning in again
tonight. So thank you, Chris, for always being
there. Appreciate you listening and let's see
if we have anything over here on on Twitter Jim
Wilson K5 ND says Congratulations to Scott on
his very successful three -year tenures editor
of the National Contest Journal. That's actually
on my list to Impressive to squeeze that in amidst
all of this work. So So thank you also for that.
And we have another call on the line. So let's
go to the phones. Bloomington, Indiana. Hello.
Hey, Neil. It's Ryan, KD9DAB. Long time no talk.
Yeah, it's been a long time. I saw the caller
ID. I thought I'd do my tribute to Larry King
there. And, you know, Bloomington, Indiana. Hello.
Well, go ahead, Ryan. Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted
to say thank you to Dr. Scott. I didn't even
I knew that you had been involved with some of
the studies with COVID and stuff like that. I've
seen that around on Twitter, read the paper and
then saw your name on it. That was really cool
to see. I've been keeping up on it. I'm not sure
we haven't caught up in a while, but I'm actually
studying epidemiology during this crazy time.
So that was really cool to see the connect and
it's great to hear Ham's helping out during this
unprecedented time. Thanks, Ryan. It just seems
like the other day we saw each other at Dayton
and you were getting awards and leading the K
-9 SOU, Neil told me during break that you are
a grad student now at IU, so congratulations
on all you're doing. I have to say, what an exciting
time to be studying epidemiology. It really brings
it home, right? Bill Gates in his letter, he
and Melinda Gates to the letter to their foundation
and the community writ large said this past week
that this is the year that global health became
global. So how exciting, Ryan, and hopefully
you can get involved in some studies and do some
things while the pandemic is going on to help
with your education. Yeah, I was also Thinking
about this, this semester I'm taking two classes
that are perfect for this time. I'm taking infectious
epidemiology and then public health informatics.
So all this data wrangling with contact tracing
and stuff like that. We got to figure out the
backbone of it. That's my plan this semester.
So yeah, I really appreciate all that you've
done. I also read your paper about the heart
attack risk with homeless populations. That was
really awesome to read. IU were really kind of
pounding in social determinants of health and
stuff like that. So that's fantastic to hear.
Oh, thank you. Yes, that's a very sobering set
of data for those who are listening to Neil's
show tonight. We published a paper in the Mayo
Clinic Proceedings showing that if you are homeless
and have a heart attack, your risk of dying is
probably double what someone who's not homeless
is. So it's an important group of patients to
pay special attention to. You know, Ryan, I want
to give a little shout out right now, if I may,
to the dean at the Ohio State University Medical
Center. They actually have mobile units that
go out and try to treat homeless people and to
do follow -up care. And I wish all of the major
hospitals would do what we're seeing that the
chancellor has started at Ohio State. Excuse
me, the Ohio State University Medical Center.
Yes, yes. I realize that both the IU alumnus
on this call and the UK alumnus on the call have
probably had painful memories watching our teams
lose to the Ohio State. But when it comes to
public health and global health, we put all that
aside and work together. Absolutely, 100%. Ryan,
thank you so much for giving a call tonight.
Good luck with the studies and keep on working
on all that epidemiology. That's a fabulous time
to be studying that. It should hit right home.
Right on. Well, thanks for having me, Neil. Both
of you guys stay safe and I'll catch you sometime
later. Thank you, Ryan. Nice to hear from you.
73. 73, Ryan. We have a very interesting story
during the COVID study in New Hampshire. We had
a couple of patients who wanted to receive convalescent
plasma, but they were unable to take it because
they were both critically ill and unable to give
informed consent. And we had two other mechanisms
for patients, for their families or others to
provide the informed consent, but the laws in
New Hampshire blocked it. But the families really
were asking if we couldn't do something. So we
actually harnessed our connections and use social
media to get in touch with the governor's office
and they were able to pass either waive a requirement
or pass a law to allow during pandemics for patients
to have access to experimental therapies without
specifically having to do written informed consent
if they could give other acceptable means of
consent. So it was a very interesting troubleshooting
experience that we had that you don't hear about
very often. Very very interesting. Well Scott,
I'm looking at the clock and it's it's already
over time So I do want to mention one last thing
here before you go because we just haven't had
had you on here Because you've been so busy with
all this But Jim Wilson mentioned it, you know,
congratulations on on the three -year run as
the editor of the National Contest Journal I
know that you had to Kind of get some relief
on that throughout the last little bit of your
term because of all the research going on but
but thank you for all of that support and thank
you for bringing me on there and starting to
Contribute and you've got a new editor that's
taken over for you Yes, Lee Finkel ky7m a longtime
contest or very experienced writer, attorney
by training, and academic by training has taken
over and is doing a wonderful job. Neil, I just
have to say that two of the best decisions I
made as editor were to recruit you and Jim Wilson
as authors. And both of you touched audiences
and brought material that no one else had ever
done before and made the journal much better.
So thank you for the kind words, but really like
this study. The credit belongs largely to those
who did the writing and the hard work. And so
thank you, Neil, for putting up with us every
two months. It seemed always at a challenging
time from our schedules to get the articles in.
But you did it. And you did some great interviews.
And almost every issue that I was editor, we
had someone who was a younger person, a youth
contestor on the cover, which was great. And
we did our part to help grow a ham radio. among
younger operators and Jim helped us with explaining
a lot of VHF and UHF contesting tips and tricks
and techniques and it was just you know both
of you just brought tremendous value to the journal
I hope that you'll both continue writing for
it for the long time and i want to say you know
i'm working right now on a series of articles
for ncj about uh... what we call gateways uh...
events to contesting so i'm looking forward frank
allen i have some exclusive data from the a double
r l the were analyzing and uh... looking forward
to submitting that later this year to NCJ and
also to QST. So even though I'm no longer editor,
I carry the title past editor with great pride
and the passion for writing hasn't left. So you'll
probably see works from me from time to time
being submitted. Well, we look forward to it.
Thank you so much for all of that and thank you
for being on the show tonight again to fill us
in on the next chapter of this whole study and
really appreciate all that you do and I appreciate
your friendship and your willingness to come
on here and talk about all this stuff. So thank
you so much and we'll do it again soon, I'm sure.
Thank you, Neil, and give my best to Julie, your
lovely bride, and congratulations again on your
wedding earlier in 2020. Well, thank you so much.
All right, well, we're going to finish things
up here tonight. That is a wrap for this week's
edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guests,
Dr. Scott Wright, KZeroMD and everybody out there
in cyberspace for listening and calling in, typing
in and invite you back next Thursday night, 9
p .m. Eastern Time. And for a list of our upcoming
guests, visit HamTalkLive .com. And if you like
the show, please leave us a review. And actually,
tonight we're going to announce a new little
contest that we're going to do. We're going to
give away some free t -shirts out of the iTunes
reviews that are posted between now and the end
of February. So if you go to iTunes and leave
a review, and we'll go through how to do that
real quickly here, make sure you include your
call sign so I can find where to send everything.
But we're going to give out some free t -shirts
to those that leave us a review. So what you
want to do is open up the podcast app. If you
have an Apple iPad or iPhone or iTunes on your
computer, if you don't have a mobile device that
has the Apple podcast app on it and search for
ham talk live, click on the logo and then if
you just scroll down it'll say write a review
and again make sure you leave your call sign
in there so if you're an iTunes user which most
podcasts listeners actually are statistically
anyway it's about seventy percent I think it
is so you know if you're not leave us a review
elsewhere but we're gonna do the t -shirt giveaway
on iTunes so leave us a review and that'll help
others find the program faster. So for now, this
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 to 3, 7 to 5,
and may the good DX be yours.