COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China, rapidly spread to other areas of South-East  Asia, (like Japan and South Korea), Italy, and the rest of Europe, before taking a foothold in the U.S.A., shutting the country down into a national curfew, and putting the U.S. Economy within weeks into a recession.  Communities hunkered down, having been told by Health-Officials to expect to “brace for the long-run”.

At the same time, medical researchers throughout the world were conveying limited clinical trials in a desperate attempt to stem the tide as thousands of deaths were reported world-wide each week.

Gene sequencing analysis strongly suggests the virus originated in bats. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) resulted from a virus transferring from bats to civet cats and then humans. The conditions conducive to the spread of the virus responsible for SARS, which began in 2003, originated at a wet market, commonly found in Asia, Africa and Latin America. a yet-unidentified intermediary species. An uncorroborated report published by Chinese researchers in February 2020 suggested that the intermediary species involved in the transmission from bats to humans, may may have been the pangolin (also called a scaly anteater). Pangolins are sold as delicacies in such wet-markets in China.

On 16 March 2020, Professor Didier Raoult, Advisor to the French Government on COVID-19, announced that a majority of 24 non-randomized patients in Southern France responded to a short treatment trial ¹ of  hydroxychloroquine. The advantage of a drug like hydroxychloroquine being effective in the treatment of COVID-19 is that it`s already been cleared by the FDA for the prevention and treatment of Malaria.² The trial is yet to be peer-reviewed.¹

An amount of 600 mg of hydroxychloroquine (brand name Plaquenil) was administered to these patients every day for 10 days. They reported “a significant decrease in viral load”.¹ The drug appeared to be responsible for a “rapid and effective speeding up of their healing process, and a sharp decrease in the amount of time they remained contagious”.³ 70% of patients were “considered cured”, compared with 12.5% of those who did not receive hydroxychloroquine and  azithromycin combination.¹

Within days President Trump had the FDA approve manufacture of hydroxychloroquine on an industrial scale.

The antibiotic azithromycin – which is known to be effective against secondary infections from bacterial lung disease – led to even better outcomes. Professor Raoult said the results showed there was “a spectacular reduction in the number of positive cases” with the combination therapy. At 6 days, among patients given combination therapy, the percentage of cases still carrying SARS-CoV-2 was no more than 5%.

References

1. “What Is Hydroxychloroquine? Donald Trump Says Malaria Drug for Coronavirus Has Been Approved by FDA”. Newsweek.
2. ^“Coronavirus : diagnostiquons et traitons ! Premiers résultats pour la chloroquine – IHU” (in French). Retrieved 18 March 2020.
3. ^France, Connexion. “French researcher posts successful Covid-19 drug trial”. www.connexionfrance.com. Retrieved 18 March 2020.

Tags: Bioterrorism, Chinese Virus, F.D.A., Hubei, hydroxychloroquine, President Trump, Professor Didier Raoult

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