Existing drugs could help treat covid-19. How do we know when to use them? Finding the balance between being ultra-rigorous in trials and trying to keep patients alive

Washington Post ^ | Jeffrey Klausner : Professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

[SeekAndFind]

More than 400,000 Americans are dead from covid-19 in the 11 months since the first confirmed U.S. fatality from the disease. Current models predict an additional 200,000 could be dead by late spring. Intensive care units nationwide are nearly 80 percent full. Vaccination is going far more slowly than necessary to keep up with the epidemic.

There have been no substantial advances with new antivirals, and remdesivir, a drug approved for use in hospitalized patients, has had only a modest effect in curbing bad outcomes. We are in desperate need of safe, oral medications to treat early cases of covid-19 to prevent hospitalization and death.

Unfortunately, the debacle with hydroxychloroquine in the summer, touted by the former charlatan in chief as a cure-all for SARS-CoV-2 infection, further poisoned the well of repurposing old and generally safe medications for treating the new disease.

But potentially reliable medications are available already — and it’s time to start trying to use them, even if that means loosening the standards for deciding whether a drug works to use off-label to treat the coronavirus.

Ivermectin, a widely available, inexpensive medication used to treat parasitic infections in both humans and animals, was found to have antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, prompting study by investigators. The results have been conflicting, leading the National Institutes of Health Covid-19 Treatment Guidelines group not to advise for or against routine use and recommending only further study. Ivermectin, however, is increasingly being tried both in the United States and internationally, with reports of widespread use. On Wednesday, the South African Medicines Control Council approved it for compassionate use.

Last week, the Montreal Heart Institute issued a news release sharing encouraging findings from a study of the anti-inflammatory medication colchicine in reducing covid-19-related hospitalizations or deaths.

[Gene Eric]

I wouldn’t be surprised if WaPo is concerned about the absence of reporting on the safe alternatives.

[pangaea6]

Yep, they are corrupt as can be, they know they can’t block every alternative news source, word has been out, peak vaccination has occured for them so now let’s jump on the IVM bandwagon started by Trump and conservatives

[pangaea6]

They didn’t care about ultra rigorous trials with this weird vaccine, why a generally safe well known cheap drug? We know why, Fauci, dems, cdc, fda should be in jail

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Prof. Klausner sounds more like a “charlatan in chief” than his intended smear target Pres. Trump.

In the end, Trump will prove to be more of a prescient medical voice for trying different medicines than this clown. Just read the other articles in today’s FR listings and you wills see that Invermectin is being touted and used more around that world than ever before. Hydro/zinc/etc medicines also have recorded positive results when nothing else was working.

I come from a medical family of long standing and respect. The writer is one doctor I wouldn’t let in my house, even with a mask and a Witchdoctor’s voodoo bundle.

[Veggie Todd]

Go ask the homeless what drugs they’re taking. Seems they know how to keep Covid away.

[joshua c]

corporate quack

[joshua c]

they are outdoors 24/7

[gleeaikin]

I just looked at the WaPo article. It was printed Jan. 27, 2021, although only posted here in June 2021. I wonder how hard WaPo and the author were slapped down for making these suggestions?

[gleeaikin]

What these idiots don’t seem to understand that once the body has depleted its zinc, Vitamin D3 and Vitamin C, the body shifts into a different disease state with the cytokine storms and red blood cell destruction issues. Early treatment with HCQ and zinc, or Ivermectin and zinc plus important other nutrients is the way to go. They don’t realize that zinc is the soldiers with weapons, the HCQ is the troop train. They work together and both are important. I don’t know if Ivermectin needs the zinc, but it seems to have lower risks than HCQ which are not very high either.

[gleeaikin]

Remember the author’s article was printed in late January of this year, not in June when posted here.

[El Cid]

Thanks for your reference on Post 11

[El Cid]

Re: 15
Thanks. I use Kaiser, so I’m not sure if that will work for me, but I might give it a try (I already acquired some, but I had to jump through some hoops, and it was a bit pricey. But if I need some more - I can see if I can get a friendly prescription).

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for pointing that out.

Knowledge of the efficacy of HCQ and IVM combined with minerals, antibiotics, glutathione precursors and melatonin was quite clear at least a half year before he published this in January.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Call PushHealth. They charge something like $68 for a brief consultation and will then send a prescription to your pharmacy.

I also talked to Dr. George Fareed in Southern California and he sent a prescription to my pharmacy and didn’t charge me anything.

[El Cid]

Thanks