Chloroquinine and Quinine tablets. LA Times.
Chloroquinine is one of many drugs undergoing clinical trials in an attempt to defeat the spread of the Coronavirus. LA Times. The most promising of these drugs is Chloroquinine, an anti-malarial drug. The drug is currently undergoing at least a dozen clinical trials and is being prescribed off-label to treat the disease in the United States. It has also proven effective against the closely related SARS and MERS viruses.
In addition to Chloroquinine, it's more modern counterpart Hydroxychloroquinine is being tested as well. Both of these drugs are well known and have limited side effects. Remdesivir, a drug that was developed to fight the Ebola virus is also undergoing testing. The drug failed to fight Ebola but has been used in limited cases against Coronavirus with positive results. However, Remdesivir is not as well tested and commonly used as the Quinine based drugs.
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents).....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
My Comment:
I'm fairly confident that Chloroquinine will prove to be an effective treatment for Coronavirus. The media, as awful as it always is, is screaming at the top of their lungs that it's not FDA approved but that also doesn't change the fact that it's being widely used to treat Coronavirus and is apparently having quite a bit of success. There have been multiple studies that have shown effectiveness and there are many accounts of it working from patients and doctors who have used the drug.
It's also a relief as the Quinine family of drugs is not only well understood and mostly safe, they are also in good supply due to the fact that malaria is such a concern. These are safe drugs for the most part and though there are some side effects from what I understand they mostly only happen with people who use the drug for a long time. It shouldn't be too difficult for the governments of the world to roll these pills out for people who are sick, though the most critically ill will be the first priority.
Azithromycin is more of a mystery for me. The LA Times article didn't have any information about it and the rest of the media is so hysterical right now it's hard to get good facts on it. As an antibiotic it makes little sense that the drug would help with Coronavirus itself but my guess is that it is used to help treat any opportunistic bacteria that attack the body while the immune system is dealing with the virus.
The combination seems like an effective treatment and I am glad that President Trump is allowing it to be used off label for compassionate use. This shouldn't be surprising as President Trump signed the Right to Try act, which allows people to try drugs that haven't been FDA approved if they are terminally ill. Though we may have some problems with dosage and side effects, I think that allowing people to take these drugs is the right thing to do as it seems pretty clear that they are working.
As for Remdesivir, it too looks promising. I remember hearing about the drug during the major Ebola outbreak that so devastated West Africa and was disappointed when it didn't prove effective in fighting the disease. Thankfully though it seems like it is more effective at fighting Coronavirus. However, unlike the Quinine derived drugs, this one is less well known and well studied and will probably take more time to fully prove that it is safe. I don't think it will be at the forefront for fighting the disease the way the Quinine drugs will be. But it is another tool in our arsenal for those who either can't take the Quinine drugs or have tried and failed.
I do think that we are probably going to turn the corner on the Coronavirus soon. I think that the Chloroquinine/Azithromycin duo will treat many of these cases successfully and even if it doesn't get everyone Remdesivir may help pick up the slack. If it does it won't do much to slow the pace of infections but it will slow the rate of death and severe hospitalization quickly. Given that both drugs are fairly common I think we should see this rolled out pretty soon. And when it does the death rate should start to plummet.
I also think that President Trump is staking his presidency on this being an effective treatment. This tells me that it probably is as I doubt he would risk his presidency on a comforting lie. That's probably part of the reason the media is freaking out so much as they know that if this does end up stopping the disease to the point where people can return to work President Trump will be able to take credit for it, with good reason too as others may not have been so willing to allow the treatment in the first place.
Still, none of this means that we can go ahead an ignore all the rules and recommendations for the Coronavirus. Just because a treatment appears to be available doesn't mean that you can go party with your friends and stop washing your hands. Even with a treatment many people will still continue to die from the disease, even if the death rate collapses.
That being said, I'm more hopeful now that I have been since this whole thing started a couple of months ago. I was fully prepared for this to last until next year and having to bury many of my older family, friends and coworkers. That doesn't seem to be in the cards now. With an effective treatment we can fight back this disease and even get the world back on it's feat, probably by summer. It's still too soon to tell but I think the worst case scenario is a lot less likely now that it was before.
It's also a relief as the Quinine family of drugs is not only well understood and mostly safe, they are also in good supply due to the fact that malaria is such a concern. These are safe drugs for the most part and though there are some side effects from what I understand they mostly only happen with people who use the drug for a long time. It shouldn't be too difficult for the governments of the world to roll these pills out for people who are sick, though the most critically ill will be the first priority.
Azithromycin is more of a mystery for me. The LA Times article didn't have any information about it and the rest of the media is so hysterical right now it's hard to get good facts on it. As an antibiotic it makes little sense that the drug would help with Coronavirus itself but my guess is that it is used to help treat any opportunistic bacteria that attack the body while the immune system is dealing with the virus.
The combination seems like an effective treatment and I am glad that President Trump is allowing it to be used off label for compassionate use. This shouldn't be surprising as President Trump signed the Right to Try act, which allows people to try drugs that haven't been FDA approved if they are terminally ill. Though we may have some problems with dosage and side effects, I think that allowing people to take these drugs is the right thing to do as it seems pretty clear that they are working.
As for Remdesivir, it too looks promising. I remember hearing about the drug during the major Ebola outbreak that so devastated West Africa and was disappointed when it didn't prove effective in fighting the disease. Thankfully though it seems like it is more effective at fighting Coronavirus. However, unlike the Quinine derived drugs, this one is less well known and well studied and will probably take more time to fully prove that it is safe. I don't think it will be at the forefront for fighting the disease the way the Quinine drugs will be. But it is another tool in our arsenal for those who either can't take the Quinine drugs or have tried and failed.
I do think that we are probably going to turn the corner on the Coronavirus soon. I think that the Chloroquinine/Azithromycin duo will treat many of these cases successfully and even if it doesn't get everyone Remdesivir may help pick up the slack. If it does it won't do much to slow the pace of infections but it will slow the rate of death and severe hospitalization quickly. Given that both drugs are fairly common I think we should see this rolled out pretty soon. And when it does the death rate should start to plummet.
I also think that President Trump is staking his presidency on this being an effective treatment. This tells me that it probably is as I doubt he would risk his presidency on a comforting lie. That's probably part of the reason the media is freaking out so much as they know that if this does end up stopping the disease to the point where people can return to work President Trump will be able to take credit for it, with good reason too as others may not have been so willing to allow the treatment in the first place.
Still, none of this means that we can go ahead an ignore all the rules and recommendations for the Coronavirus. Just because a treatment appears to be available doesn't mean that you can go party with your friends and stop washing your hands. Even with a treatment many people will still continue to die from the disease, even if the death rate collapses.
That being said, I'm more hopeful now that I have been since this whole thing started a couple of months ago. I was fully prepared for this to last until next year and having to bury many of my older family, friends and coworkers. That doesn't seem to be in the cards now. With an effective treatment we can fight back this disease and even get the world back on it's feat, probably by summer. It's still too soon to tell but I think the worst case scenario is a lot less likely now that it was before.
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