3 ms·

I think the idea is that the antivirals are already sitting on shelves, we just need to figure out the right cocktail

• kjs3 7y ago
  If it was that easy, we'd there would be no bacterial infections (antibiotics are already sitting on the shelves) and we would have no problems with viruses (antivirals are already sitting on shelves). It's not that easy.
• dragonwriter 7y ago
  That's not at all how it works with antivirals, which is why we have effective antiviral treatments for only very few viral diseases.
  • djohnston 7y ago
    you better tell these guys to stop wasting their time, and fast! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32147628 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32147628
    • dragonwriter 7y ago
      Yes, it's possible that existing drugs are effective against it, alone or on combination. It's also quite likely (the norm, in fact, for viral diseases) that they aren't. It's not “we have antivirals we just have to find the right combination”, it's “we might get lucky and have a combination of an existing drug or combination of existing drugs that are effective”. As I said upthread we ought to be (and are) pursuing both approaches, vaccine and antiviral, not treating one as both certain and quicker and focussing exclusively on it, as another poster suggested upthread for antivirals.