I presume that the results of a test of remdesivir, reported by STAT, will be disappointing to those who have been promoting the drug as a treatment for COVID-19:
The antiviral medicine remdesivir from Gilead Sciences failed to speed the improvement of patients with Covid-19 or prevent them from dying, according to results from a long-awaited clinical trial conducted in China. Gilead, however, said the data suggest a “potential benefit.â€
A summary of the study results was inadvertently posted to the website of the World Health Organization and seen by STAT on Thursday, but then removed.
“A draft manuscript was provided by the authors to WHO and inadvertently posted on the website and taken down as soon as the mistake was noticed. The manuscript is now undergoing peer review and we are waiting for a final version before WHO comments on it,†said WHO spokesperson Daniela Bagozzi.
Better-constructed tests are undoubtedly under way and there will be even more.
IMO the lack of an effective treatment for COVID-19 is one of the gravest issues surrounding the disease. Under the present strategy everyone susceptible to it will contract it eventually and a small percentage of those will become very ill. I remain unconvinced that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 will be available in the foreseeable future if ever. That means that an effective treatment is a high priority.
If the shutdown continues into the fall, the current Great Depression will become locked in, and it will last many years. The first lasted from 1929 to about 1942.
I doubt very much that the tattered remnants of our Constitution will survive a Second Great Depression.
There are a couple of compounds in the pipeline being tested as antivirals against the Feline Infectious Peritonitis virus, which is also in the Coronavirus family. I wonder if anyone is looking at these.
https://www.dvm360.com/view/feline-infectious-peritonitis-fatal-treatable
The evidence coming from many quarters is that Kung Flu, although extremely hard on the very very ill, was nowhere near the monster plague it was originally pumped up to be. Current estimates of fatalities per infection are now well below 1% of the populace. The jury is still out on whether masks, social distancing, stay at home, HCQ+, testing, and other mitigation efforts did any particular good or not. The only thing we can be certain of that it’s all Orange Man Bad’s fault for not having foreseen this before he ran for President. No other parties involved have any agency whatsoever.