Posted on 05/23/2020 7:16:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is taking the drug hydroxychloroquine as a precaution against the coronavirus has once again thrown a decades-old antimalarial drug into the headlines.
There’s currently not enough data to say whether the drug can protect people from catching COVID-19 or from getting very ill if they do get infected with the virus. Studies of its use in treating very sick patients have shown mixed results and, in some cases, have led to dangerous side effects.
But now, with the president touting hydroxychloroquine even as scientists issue cautions about its use, the drug has found itself at the center of political divides, to the possible detriment of figuring out whether it works.
Nevertheless, researchers are busy testing hydroxychloroquine and a related drug called chloroquine to see if they can either prevent infection or keep illness from worsening. Nearly 200 clinical trials are under way or planned around the world to test the drugs, either alone or in combination with other medications. That includes at least 28 trials examining whether either drug can protect healthcare workers and others at high risk of getting COVID-19.
Here’s what scientists know about the drugs and their potential.
Both are antimalarial drugs that also have well-known antiviral activity against many viruses, including SARS and MERS. At least they work against those viruses in lab dishes.
In lab tests, hydroxychloroquine can also stop SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, from infecting cells and decreases replication of viruses that do get inside cells, researchers report March 18 in Cell Reports. A February 4 report in Cell Research found that chloroquine also inhibits the virus.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
IGNORING THE HYSTERIA FROM THE LEFT, HERE’s THE REALITY WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT ( see article ):
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine disrupt interactions between some of SARS-CoV-2’s proteins with proteins called sigma receptors in human cells, researchers report April 30 in Nature. Interrupting those protein interactions may make it difficult for the virus to replicate, says study coauthor Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, a microbiologist who directs the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Together, those antiviral capabilities make the drugs attractive for use against the coronavirus. But there’s another important reason chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine were some of the first drugs pressed into action: They’re available. Doctors have been prescribing the drugs, already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for decades and they’re generally safe, although there are some serious side effects.
“Time is of the essence,” says Adam Spivak, an infectious-disease doctor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “When you have a drug that you understand and can safely administer that’s on the shelf, that’s the drug you reach for first.”
Hydroxychloroquine is better tolerated by most people, so is the one researchers are testing more often.
But isn’t taking hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine dangerous?
It can be FOR SOME PEOPLE, such as those prone to heart problems, or when taken in combination with other drugs that can alter heart rhythms.
In trials with very sick people, hydroxychloroquine has caused sometimes fatal heart-rhythm problems. People with existing heart problems, those with low potassium levels or low oxygen levels in their blood are especially vulnerable to these serious side effects, says Raymond Woosley, a pharmacologist the University of Arizona in Phoenix.
Really? With how many months and how many people affected by this virus they still must take a "wait and see" attitude on this long used drug?
I wonder if things would change if the only people affected by the coronavirus were those who had recent abortions...
I wonder if things would change if the only people affected by the coronavirus were those who had recent sodomy...
I wonder if things would change if the only people affected by the coronavirus were those who were registered as Democrats...
If a pedestrian, carrying no ID and therefore no known medical history, is hit by a car and taken to the hospital unconscious, I can understand that great caution should be used in prescribing drugs. Patients, diagnosed with the C-virus, especially from nursing homes, have known medical histories, including their heart problems. Doctors would not prescribe a medication, such as hydrochloriquine, for them.
I hope that this inexpensive, available drug will show outstanding results in saving lives and ending the C-virus pandemic. It's too bad that Trump-haters hope that it doesn't work. Do they even realize how evil they are in hoping that a treatment does not work?
Also, as you get older, the levels of zinc in your bodies drop, so a zinc supplement is added to the HCQ, + AZPak or Doxicycline for 4 - 5 days (or less). The zinc really messes with ability of virus to replicate.
It would seem Zinc is not part of a large majority of the tests, therefore doomed to fail.
“Brandi Glanville claims she sprays her kids with bleach water when they enter the house...”
Brandy is doing fine but her kids look like hell.
This
Researchers have known for many years that chloroquine is a zinc ionophore. Medical lecture on the biochemistry, and treatment protocol
The polarization based on politics over this is sickening.
It won’t be long before the top medical schools issue detailed reports on what happened and what strategies were most effective in treating the virus.Of course the Amazon Compost and the New York Slimes will report them in ways that make Trump look like a war criminal but that’s to be expected.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.