In the last 135 days, Watts Up With That has run 235 posts on do-it-yourself coronavirus cures using chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, and other quinine derivatives. Many cite Climate Depot, Breitbart and Fox News, some linked to a Schweppes Tonic Water delivery service, and one advocated taking cardiotoxic chloroquine in doses large enough (4.5 grams !) to risk death as a side effect.
This was not lost on President Trump. After he started taking hydroxychloroquine, many of his fans followed suit, and one died after swallowing non-prescription chloroquine sold as a fish tank cleaner- it kills algae as well as malaria parasites.
Ignoring FDA and WHO studies that have found chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine ineffectual the authors of this astonishing amateur pharmacopeia continue to damn Big Pharma for denigrating cheap drugs in order to market expensive ones.
Yet until today, none of the 235 WUWT posts, or President Trumps uncountable tweets, mentioned a cheap asma remedy that has just won the Covid survival sweepstakes, the common steroid dexamethasone.
Nature and The New York Times report:
Dexamethasone shown to save livesA cheap and widely available steroid called dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to reduce deaths among people seriously ill with COVID-19. Researchersworking with the Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial, which is assessing the capacity of six medications to treat the disease, announced the findings in a press release. The results have not yet been peer reviewed. The study enrolled 2,100 participants who received dexamethasone and tracked how they fared in comparison with about 4,300 people who received standard care. For people on ventilators, it reduced deaths by about one-third. For patients needing oxygen, it cut the risk of death by one-fifth. The drug seems to reduce the damage from a hyperactive immune reaction called cytokine storm. Nature | 5 min read |
Coronavirus Live Updates: Drug Proven to Reduce Virus Deaths, Scientists Say
An inexpensive drug reduces virus deaths, scientists say.
Scientists at the University of Oxford said on Tuesday that they have identified what they called the first drug proven to reduce coronavirus-related deaths, after a 6,000-patient trial of the drug in Britain showed that a low-cost steroid could reduce deaths significantly for hospitalized patients.
The steroid, dexamethasone, reduced deaths by a third in patients receiving ventilation, and by a fifth in patients receiving only oxygen treatment, the scientists said. They found no benefit from the drug in patients who did not need respiratory support.
Matt Hancock, Britain’s health secretary, said National Health Service doctors would begin treating patients with the drug on Tuesday afternoon.
The government started stockpiling dexamethasone several months ago because it was hopeful about the potential of the drug, Mr. Hancock said, and now has 200,000 doses on hand.
“Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in Covid-19,” said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford, and one of the chief investigators for the trial, said in a statement. “The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment.”
Professor Horby said that dexamethasone should now become the “standard of care in these patients,” noting that it is inexpensive, widely available and can be used immediately.
