Here are the findings of a front-line emergency doctor in NYC. You can’t be any more front-line than Dr Sam Girgis (@DrSamGirgis) and he’s very fair. In a crisis, I wouldn’t mind if he was my doctor.
From his tweet yesterday:
These #COVID19 treatments appear to help patients:
1. Proning to improve hypoxia & prevent intubation
2. HCQ/Zpak/Zinc if used early otherwise useless <—
3. Remdesivir <———————
4. IL6 inhibition (we use Tocilizumab & Sarilumab) <-—
***This is our experience but more studies are needed
There are other ‘anecdotal’ stories that I picked up on twitter where HCQ/Zpack (with or without zinc) has helped with patients with breathing issues or bad xrays. However for some of the NYC patients I noticed that the doctors had to quickly escalate to Remdesivir and/or Tocilizumab. I think NYC/NJ might have got a more severe covid19 strain than other cities.
Very possible. Areas with large Chinese expat populations, Lombardy area of Italy, NYC, Seattle for example tend to have earlier outbreaks, and higher fatality rates.
There is some evidence that the virus reverts to a less virulent form over time. Compare the fatality rate in Wuhan (not the "official" rate, but the rate that caused the officials to lock down a city of 11 million, weld people into their apartment buildings, bring in 40 industrial incinerators to keep up with the 'medical waste', etc.) to the rate elsewhere in the world. The more generations of patients before introduction to a new area, the lower the fatality rate in that area.