Antiviral cocktail for COVID-19

[crimycarny]

I’ve been keeping a close eye on COVID-19 antivirals these last few months as I feel they will be key to fighting COVID due to its ability to mutate so rapidly. I ran across an interesting paper which suggests combining two types of antiviral meds—the new polymerase inhibitors being developed for COVID and existing antivirals used to fight Hep C—might be the key.

I don’t pretend to understand all the science presented in this article, but sort of reading between the lines it seems Hep C antivirals attack one critical replication method of RNA viruses and the COVID-19 antivirals in clinical trials attack a different mechanism. Together they may effective at stopping COVID-19. At least that’s the way I read it. Someone much smarter than me may be able to decipher the information in this article more clearly.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34312622/

[LisaL]

1. It's really going to be helpful if we have anti-virals that can be prescribed for people to take at

home soon after symptoms develop.
Otherwise people wait, and for some it gets better and it goes away, while for some it turns deadly.

[GPV]

2. Do we risk rendering them ineffective if we don't save them

for serious cases?

[LisaL]

4. I don't think so.

They are not antibiotics. They are dealing with stopping enzymes, not bacteria.

[crimycarny]

6. Antivirals not as prone to resistance

I’m assuming you mean these diseases becoming resistant? Antivirals aren’t as prone to disease resistance, though after several years I’m sure it eventually could occur. But if someone takes HEP-C antiviral for COVID, wouldn’t the disease learning how to be resistant be COVID? Not Hep C? For Hep C to become resistant I would assume it would need to be due to being introduced to the Hep-C drug, not some unrelated disease using same drug.

[GPV]

7. Good to know. Thx!

[crimycarny]

3. Agree

That’s why it’s so important we have both—vaccine and antivirals. Look at what the HIV antivirals have done for what used to be a death sentence diagnosis. No HIV vaccine yet but hopefully one will be discovered.

I’m really crossing my fingers that a potent antiviral is found SOON. Biden has invested $3 billion into an antiviral development program.

[ShazamIam]

5. I realize this is a serious post about a serious disea, but it is also Saturday afternoon and

I was thinking along the lines of Gin, and Tonic with a quarter of lime squeeze, after all there is that quinine in the tonic and vit. C in the lime juice.

[Phoenix61]

8. Uncle Val's gin and Fever Tree or Q tonic.😀