New treatments aim to treat COVID-19 early, before it gets serious
The sooner, the better is an adage that’s especially true when treating viral infections. Usually, drugs that tamp down a virus are given within the first couple of days of symptoms. But with the coronavirus, the only two drugs known to help — an antiviral called remdesivir, and steroids such as dexamethasone — are given only to people hospitalized with the disease. Those drugs may keep seriously ill people from dying and help them recover faster, but it would be far better to keep people from getting so sick in the first place, scientists say. To that end, they’re testing a number of drugs that could be taken as soon as someone tests positive. Of course, scientists are also frantically working to get vaccines ready for the general public (SN: 7/10/20). Many have passed initial safety testing and entered the final phase of clinical trials to probe how well they protect against the...