The New York Times has a good piece on the drugs and treatments being used to against the Covid-19 Virus….
It also rates them…..
By Jonathan Corum, Katherine J. Wu and Carl Zimmer
The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the greatest challenges modern medicine has ever faced. Doctors and scientists are scrambling to find treatments and drugs that can save the lives of infected people and perhaps even prevent infection.
Below is an updated list of 19 of the most-talked-about treatments for the coronavirus. While some are accumulating evidence that they’re effective, most are still at early stages of research. We also included a warning about a few that are just bunk.
There is no cure yet for Covid-19. And even the most promising treatments to date only help certain groups of patients, and await validation from further trials. The F.D.A. has not fully licensed any treatment specifically for the coronavirus, but it has granted emergency use authorization to a few.
This list provides a snapshot of the latest research on the coronavirus, but does not constitute medical endorsements. Always consult your doctor about treatments for Covid-19.
New additions and recent updates:
• We adjusted some labels used in the tracker after additional discussions with experts. July 17
We will update and expand the list as new evidence emerges. For details on evaluating treatments, see the N.I.H. Covid-19 Treatment Guidelines. For the current status of vaccine development, see our Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker.
Blocking the Virus
Antivirals can stop viruses such as H.I.V. and hepatitis C from hijacking our cells. Scientists are searching for antivirals that work against the new coronavirus.
PROMISING EVIDENCE EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION
Remdesivir
Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences, was the first drug to get emergency authorization from the F.D.A. for use on Covid-19. It stops viruses from replicating by inserting itself into new viral genes. Remdesivir was originally tested as an antiviral against Ebola and Hepatitis C, only to deliver lackluster results. But preliminary data from trials that began this spring suggested the drug can reduce the recovery time of people hospitalized with Covid-19 from 15 to 11 days. (The study defined recovery as “either discharge from the hospital or hospitalization for infection-control purposes only.”) These early results did not show any effect on mortality, though retrospective data released in July hints that the drug might reduce death rates among those who are very ill.