The’ other side ‘of dealing with the virus….
Fortunately, vaccination is not the only tool in our arsenal. Researchers are also experimenting with a wide variety of medicines that can help reduce hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19. That, too, could bring the pandemic to an end.
But it won’t be easy.
“Viruses mutate easily, so they are usually very quick to escape any therapeutic intervention,” said Juliet Morrison, a microbiologist at UC Riverside. “Any antiviral should target multiple aspects of the viral life cycle so you don’t select for resistance.”
That means finding a single pill that can disrupt not just how the coronavirus gets into cells, but also how it copies itself. It should also be able to mess with the shell the virus makes to protect its precious genetic code…
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When it comes to the most serious cases of COVID-19, it’s important to know that it’s not the virus itself that puts people in the ICU, but rather the immune system’s response to the virus, Morrison added.
That means the most effective treatment would stop the coronavirus before it makes the immune system go haywire. But that would have to happen early on — in many cases, before people even know they’re infected….