There are no fixed cures for the treatment of COVID-19, but there are various drugs that have been approved for use such as Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir which are detailed below. Other antiviral drugs, interferon therapy and combination of anti-viral and interferons are also being experimented on to get the best possible outcome for patients. These treatments are used to reduce the symptoms and to keep the patients comfortable.
In April 2020, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh said they had made a vaccine, called PittCoVacc and tested it in mice.
Another team of scientists led by Dr. Josef Penninger of the University of British Columbia invented a medicine called APN01 and tested it in engineered human tissue, meaning human cells put together in a lab to look and act like they were inside a body. The scientists learned that adding human soluble recombinant angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to these tissues infected with SARS-CoV-2 made it harder for the virus to reproduce.
In late April 2020, a team from Oxford University announced that they had developed a COVID-19 vaccine. The United States National Institutes of health tested it in rhesus monkeys, and it worked. The Oxford scientists said because they had already been working on a vaccine against a different coronavirus, they had a head start working on one for SARS-CoV-2. The scientists said they would try to test their vaccine on 6000 people by the end of May 2020, and that their vaccine could be ready for people to use in September 2020.
In mid-May 2020, a company called Moderna said they tested their mRNA vaccine in forty-five people and eight of them produced antibodies but they did not publish the specific data or publish an article in a scientific journal. Anna Durbin of Johns Hopkins University said it was too soon to tell if people would keep the antibodies long enough for the vaccine to work. The United States Food and Drug Administration gave Moderna permission to test the vaccine again in more people. Moderna's chief medical officer said the vaccine could be ready in January 2021.
Some people think hydroxychloroquine, a medicine given to people with malaria, lupus, and arthritis, could work against COVID-19 and some do not. One study from China showed that COVID-19 patients who took hydroxychloroquine got better faster, but the study was not peer reviewed. Other studies in France and China seemed to show hydroxychloroquine helped, but the studies did not include control groups, meaning the doctors did not compare patients who took hydroxychloroquine to patients who did not, so they could not be sure it was the hydroxychloroquine that was helping them or whether it was something else. In March, the United States Food and Drug Administration gave doctors permission to give hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients.
United States President Donald Trump suggested the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could help cure COVID-19, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is part of the White House's official coronavirus team said no one could know if hydroxychloroquine worked against SARS-CoV-2. In early April, the "New York Times" reported that President Trump has "a small personal financial interest" in Sanofi, one of the companies that makes hydroxychloroquine, meaning that if the company sold more hydroxychloroquine, he would have more wealth.
In early April, Fauci said, "The data are really just at best suggestive. There have been cases that show there may be an effect and there are others to show there's no effect." Dr. Megan L. Ranney of Brown University said that hydroxychloroquine can cause heart attacks and other problems. Other doctors worry that if people take hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, there will not be enough left for people with malaria, lupus, and arthritis. Still, some hospitals have given hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients who are very sick because the doctors think it is worth the risk.
Scientists in France and China performed more studies on larger groups of patients taking hydroxychloroquine. They watched patients who were taking the medicine and other treatment together and at patients who were only taking the other treatment. Both studies showed that hydroxychloroquine did not help and did cause side effects. Both studies were published in May 2020.
Some scientists thought the drug remdesivir, which was invented as a medicine for Ebola, could work against SARS-CoV-2. Remdesivir works against some viruses. Remdesivir had already been tested in humans, so the doctors already knew it would not hurt the patients even if it did not make them better. Because scientists already knew remdesivir was safe, they were able to start testing it in humans right away.
In one study, doctors gave a drug called remdesivir to 61 COVID-19 patients on a compassionate basis, meaning they gave them the drug because there was no other treatment available. Scientists studied 53 of these patients and found that 68% of the patients got better, 13% died, and 25% had serious side effects. But because the study had no control group, meaning these patients were not compared to other COVID-19 patients who were not taking remdesivir, and because only 53 people were in the experiment, scientists must run more studies before they can be sure remdesivir works.
The chairman and CEO of the company that makes remdesivir, David O'Day, said that remdesivir might work better in some patients than in others and asked scientists to perform many different kinds of studies.
In October 2020, the National Institutes of Health told the world the results of its tests: They studied 11,000 people and found that remdesivir did not help keep COVID-19 patients alive.
Clayton Christensen
Clayton Magleby Christensen (April 6, 1952January 23, 2020) was an American academic, businessman, and religious leader. He was the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School of Harvard University. He was best known for his theory of "disruptive innovation". His best known work is the 1997 book "The Innovator's Dilemma".
Christensen was also a co-founder of Rose Park Advisors.
Christensen died on January 23, 2020 from leukemia treatment-related problems in Boston at the age of 67.
Franz Mazura
Franz Mazura (22 April 1924 – 23 January 2020) was an Austrian bass-baritone opera singer and actor. He performed at the Bayreuth Festival from 1971 for 25 years and at the Metropolitan Opera for 15 years.
He was made a Kammersänger in 1980 and an Honorary Member of the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1990. His best known role was as Klingsor in Wagner's "Parsifal".
Two of his recordings received Grammy Awards.
Mazura died on 23 January 2020 in Mannheim, Germany at the age of 95.
Seamus Mallon
Seamus Frederick Mallon (; 17 August 1936 – 24 January 2020) was an Irish Gaelic footballer and politician. He was deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party from 1979 to 2001. He also was a Seanad Éireann in 1986 and MP from 1986 to 2005.
Mallon was born in Markethill, Northern Ireland. He studied at St Mary's University College, Belfast.
He first played club football for Middletown during the 1950s then with Keady Dwyers, Queen's University and Crossmaglen Rangers.
Mallon died in Markethill, County Armagh, Ireland on 24 January 2020 of cancer, aged 83.
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