An experimental coronavirus treatment drug called remdesivir has sparked hope among some medical professionals. Originally created to help combat earlier coronaviruses, like those that cause SARS and MERS, remdesivir works by making it harder for the virus to duplicate. This slows the rate of spread through the body, and, in clinical trials, has helped people recover from COVID faster.
Some are hopeful that this new treatment could get us back to normal life sooner rather than later. Maybe outdoors enthusiasts will be renewing their ATV insurance this summer after all! With a proper treatment available, there are medical experts who now believe that the pandemic might be easier to get under control.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the White House COVID response team, has expressed optimism about the new treatment. During a press event at the White House Wednesday afternoon, Fauci called the clinical trials of the drug “good news.”
“What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” Fauci stated during Wednesday’s White House presser. “This will be the standard of care.” The remdesivir trials prove that the virus reacts to medication, and gives researchers something to work with. Ideally, this means the treatment could be used to significantly help people with COVID.
The clinical trials, performed in double-blind tests, showed promising results. In the group without the drug, patients with COVID were given a placebo. On average, it took fifteen days for placebo patients to recover from the virus. By contrast, the group on remdesivir took an average of eleven days to fully recover.
That’s a remarkable number, showing a thirty-three percent reduction in time to convalescence. If this holds across the general population, it could greatly ease the burden on hospitals by freeing up beds at a faster rate. It would also accelerate the pace at which the virus could be eliminated from sections of the population.
The trial also showed that the group on the drug had an eight percent case mortality rate. By contrast, the placebo group had an eleven percent mortality rate. While this isn’t wide enough to be statistically significant, it could suggest the drug also lowers case mortality rates. More data will be needed to prove or disprove this hypothesis.
In the US, regulatory bodies are moving quickly to greenlight the drug for COVID patients. The research findings from the clinical trials will now undergo peer review. Meanwhile, research into this drug, and others, continues. In extraordinary times, exceptional doctors can do unbelievable things.
