As much of the public find themselves cooped up at home with nothing to do, many others are on the front lines of battle with Covid-19, either as healthcare personnel or as researchers rapidly searching for a treatment or cure. Yet many of these individuals lay behind the scenes, masked by media coverage of imminent personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilator shortage and growing statistics of infected and dead. However, it is the efforts of these people that drives the fight against Covid-19 forward two fronts: search for vaccines and search for drugs as treatments. Whereas the Covid-19 drug search seeks to find ways to more effectively treat the root of the viral infection rather than alleviating symptoms, the vaccine search seeks a method to protect the masses from the virus in the first place. Until a proven solution for either is definitively found though, updates regarding the efforts probably won’t make it to the general media, so as to not give false hopes.
One group making significant progress in the Covid-19 vaccine field is Moderna, who is developing an mRNA-based vaccine that elicits an antiviral immune response in the patient. They leveraged their previous experience working with SARS and MERS vaccine development to get a head start on Covid-19. The NIH reports that Moderna is currently in Phase 1 of clinical trials, in which the proper dosage of the vaccine in humans will be determined. While Moderna is leading the pack of roughly 50 other vaccine efforts, they still have a ways to go (Phase 2 and Phase 3 of clinical trials) before the vaccine can be administered to the public, even with relaxed FDA standards. Even if they work at the same speed they have been, Moderna scientists could still have multiple months left of testing to do; at this point all we can do is wait.
On the other side of the R&D effort is the search for a drug to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 infection. One such drug that has made its rounds through the media recently is chloroquine, a drug that has previously been used to treat malaria. Unfortunately, media attention to the possible remedial effects of chloroquine has caused certain people to self-medicate chloroquine, even tho it has not been tested nor approved as a treatment for Covid-19. As public health officials try to curb the misinformation spreading regarding chloroquine, researchers are investigating its potential use as a legitimate Covid-19 treatment; rumors aren’t without basis after all. In a recent paper, researchers found the drug to be highly effective in reducing viral quantity in cells, though it has yet to be thoroughly proven in humans. Medical panels have nonetheless pushed for its proper, medical use as a supplement to oxygen therapy. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, research will uncover more and more treatment options to push back the scourge of coronavirus.
Is Cereal a Soup 