US top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is really pushing the ebola drug remdesivir as an important milestone in drug treatments for COVID-19.
So, what does remdesivir do? According to the just-published (non-peer-reviewed) results a major trial by Gilead Sciences - a rather unfortunate name, in a post-Handmaid's Tale world - it reduces the recovery time for COVID infections from an average of 15 days to 11 days, bringing with it a whole host of unpleasant gastrointestinal and pulmonary side-effects. It has zero effect on COVID death rates. It is not any kind of cure. Furthermore, a Chinese study of it, just published, suggests that it doesn't even reduce recovery times!
So, why is Dr. Fauci so gung ho about it? Well, I don't really know. He says it is "a very important proof of concept", that "a drug can block this virus". My interpretation of the Gilead trial results, on the other hand, would be much less positive (something along the lines of "remdesivir is next to useless against COVID-19").
I think this is probably a case of the medical protfession, particularly the American medical profession, being just desperate for any good news at all in these dark times. But building it up in this way is also misleading the public to some extent, and smacks to me of riding for a fall.
I would hope that this news will be enough to stop the inexorable rise in Gilead's share price, which was riding high on the fumes of rumoured "positive news" but, from what I know of the stock market, I have a suspicion that it will only inflame the market.
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