A coronavirus miracle drug is what we need NOW!

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic arrived on this planet – thank you China – research laboratories, private companies, governments, universities, the military have been trying to find A a vaccine and B a drug to treat/cure the worst-affected patients. With a vaccine maybe a year away the priority focus has to be on developing or finding an existing drug which can safely be given to virus victims. There have already been many claims of miracle drugs, not least by Donald Trump who for some unexplained reason latched onto the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, as the answer to all doctors’ problems. He wanted all US hospitals to go out and buy this drug and start feeding it to patients everywhere. There was a lot of opposition from the medical world which insisted the drug was too risky to be used to treat coronavirus and more research was required. Some countries, notably Spain, decided that hydroxychloroquine WAS the answer and it became the medical protocol for all hospitals. But this drug is very strong and often patients suffering from respiratory problems found it overwhelmingly powerful, making them vomit uncontrollably. No this is not the miracle treatment Mr Trump. Many other drugs have been proposed but still no treatment solution. Now it has emerged that a drug developed by a University of Chicago medical team has shown promising results. The drug is called Remdesivir. It was given daily to 125 patients all of whom had serious coronavirus symptoms with high fever and respiratory problems, and the vast majority were cured and discharged from hospital after a week. Two of the patients died. In the medical world, the use of a drug on 125 patients will never be enough to launch into worldwide use. But any sign of hope has to be grabbed. Any drug that can be found to have genuine promise for treating patients has to be worth trying. It was enough to send the stock market up in the US. It’s early days but who knows?