bttt
The available data are thin. The drugs work by decreasing the acidity in endosomes, compartments inside cells that they use to ingest outside material and that some viruses can coopt to enter a cell. But the main entryway for SARS-Cov-2 is a different one, using its so-called spike protein to attach to a receptor on the surface of human cells. Studies in cell culture have suggested chloroquines have some activity against SARS-CoV-2, but the doses needed are usually high—and could cause serious toxicities.
Encouraging cell study results with chloroquines against two other viral diseases, dengue and chikungunya, didn’t pan out in people in randomized clinical trials. And non-human primates infected with chikungunya did worse when given chloroquine. “Researchers have tried this drug on virus after virus, and it never works out in humans. The dose needed is just too high,” says Susanne Herold, an expert on pulmonary infections at the University of Giessen, Germany.
Results from COVID-19 patients are murky. Chinese researchers who report treating more than 100 patients with chloroquine touted its benefits in a letter in BioScience, but the data underlying the claim have not been published. All in all, more than 20 COVID-19 studies in China used chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, WHO notes, but their results have been hard to come by. “WHO is engaging with Chinese colleagues at the mission in Geneva and have received assurances of improved collaboration; however, no data has been shared regarding the chloroquine studies.”
Researchers in France have published a study in which they treated 20 COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine. They concluded that the drug significantly reduced viral load in nasal swabs. But it was not a randomized controlled trial and it didn’t report clinical outcomes such as deaths. In guidance published on Friday, the US Society of Critical Care Medicine said that “there is insufficient evidence to issue a recommendation on the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine in critically ill adults with COVID-19.”
It looks like getting data from the French and the Chinese is like pulling teeth. I don't get the secrecy. It's kind of BS you expect from these countries in the normal course of events, but these aren't normal times.
Plenty of love for remdesivir, plenty of sceptism for hydroxychloroquine. Note WHO makes no mention of trials with combo hydroxychloroquine and Z pack.
Xlnt informative post. I hope the cheapest drugs win.and I hope there are no skewed results based on monetary reward.
I wouldn’t trust WHO to tie my shoes.
remdesivir, an experimental antiviral compoundchloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, anti-malaria medications
lopinavir and ritonavir, HIV drugs used in combination
lopinavir and ritonavir plus interferon-beta, an immune system messenger that can help cripple viruses
WHO is not a friend of the USA. Forget about, and f***, WHO. We can handle our own healthcare.
WHO is a sock puppet for the ChiComm murderers.
I’m suspecting there will be people who will try to delay and sabotage the trials, so as to continue the destruction of Western economies.
The US should do a bunch of our own trials, independently of WHO or the CDC.
WHY?!
Were there any deaths? It seems to me they all got better. Maybe when their time comes in a few decades, they'll die, and those deaths will finally be reported. In the meantime, shouldn't they approach that treatment with optimism? The buearocrats seem dead-set against it no matter what. Some twitter doctors say you can mess up your heart rhythm (QT). That can happen with a number of common drugs ... doesn't the medical community have a way to deal with that if it happens?
re the two antiviral combo: The first trial with COVD-19 was not encouraging, however. Doctors in Wuhan, China, gave 199 patients two pills of lopinavir/ritonavir twice a day plus standard care, or standard care alone. There was no significant difference between the groups, they reported in NEJM on 15 March
Yet with the Chinese study with two viral treatments in combination the doctors concluded it was ineffective ... WHO says we need to try again 'cause it may not have been done right the first time. Kind of like socialism.