There are a variety of therapies available compared to early in the pandemic.
There was a need to test both existing medicines and experimental therapies to limit the impact of the disease.
"To be honest, we didn't know [how to treat patients]," Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Duke University School of Medicine, told ABC News."It was pretty awful. I think we had some historical memory of having seen similar viruses when SARS and MERS appeared. So what you saw is folks reaching somewhat haphazardly to drugs that we knew, at least in the test tube or in small clinical trials in those previous viruses, to be effective.
"That first major trial of remdesivir was kind of the first victory for us," Wolfe said."You could feel this palpable like, 'Wow, we have some success.' That was very quickly celebrated because, prior to that, there's something to be said for the sheer anxiety of not knowing the right step forward." Typically a cocktail of antibodies, they are manufactured in a lab and mimic the antibodies the body naturally creates when fighting the virus.
However, with new COVID variants came mutations to the spike protein, meaning the monoclonal antibodies that used to bind to it no longer did. Clinical trial data showed Merck's pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for patients with symptoms at risk of severe illness by 30%, while Pfizer's pill reduced the risk by nearly 90%.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Covid-19: Two Covid-related deaths and 1,669 casesThe total number of deaths linked to the virus reported by Stormont's Department of Health is 3,252.
Read more »
Covid-19: One Covid-related death and 463 in hospitalThe total number of deaths linked to the virus reported by Stormont's Department of Health is 3,253.
Read more »
The impact of COVID-19 on HBCUs and Black students - New York Amsterdam NewsWhile the world has been focused on the growing numbers of COVID-19 causalities, the media has somewhat ignored the long-term educational and economic impacts of the pandemic – especially for Black students.
Read more »
Merck’s Covid-19 Pill Heavily Used So Far Despite ConcernsA new Covid-19 pill from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics has been more widely used than expected since rolling out late last year, though regulators and many doctors consider it a last resort.
Read more »