<story><title>Expanded access programs for Remdesivir</title><url>https://www.gilead.com/stories/articles/an-update-on-covid-19-from-our-chairman-and-ceo</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cm2187</author><text>Stupid question in case anyone here has a medical background.&lt;p&gt;I was under the impression that covid19 was a two step process. First the virus infects and attacks the protective layer of the lungs (causing cough and fever). Then, the damage done to the protective layer of the lungs results in an infection &amp;#x2F; pneumonia, and that&amp;#x27;s where people have respiratory problems and may be in critical condition. But at this stage the viral load is low and the virus isn&amp;#x27;t the problem anymore, the pneumonia is [1].&lt;p&gt;This is why I thought Pr Raoult was advocating for the use of chloroquine in the early days of the disease, combined with prompt testing.&lt;p&gt;But it seems that anti-virals (like the study mentioned in this post and other studies in the US and Europe) are tested on patients in critical phase, i.e. with serious cases of pneumonia. Am I missing something or should we not expect anti-virals to be of much use in those cases, as it is too late, we are not dealing with a virus but with a pneumonia?&lt;p&gt;[1] see this useful video: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=BtN-goy9VOY&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=BtN-goy9VOY&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Expanded access programs for Remdesivir</title><url>https://www.gilead.com/stories/articles/an-update-on-covid-19-from-our-chairman-and-ceo</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>aluminussoma</author><text>Remdesivir was one of the earliest promising candidates to treat covid-19 since it had promising results - in the lab - against other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS. It did not have results in humans because those viruses went away before in vivo testing could be performed.&lt;p&gt;Will it work? If it was a runaway success, I would have expected any of the current clinical trials to be cut short as the difference between placebo and non-placebo patients would have been obvious. That hadn&amp;#x27;t happened. I&amp;#x27;m still hoping it has some positive effect.&lt;p&gt;The drug also had to administered through an IV over several days. It is not a pill you take. If it works, this makes treatment a little bit more difficult. You can&amp;#x27;t just give patients a pill and send them home.</text></comment>