4 ms·

But antivirals tend to need to be given early to have a good effect. How will be know who is going to be severe?

• roywiggins 7y ago
  By the time we have lots of it, we will have good statistics on demographics of people most likely to need it, so you could make educated guesses and still see a benefit.
  • randcraw 7y ago
    To offer some perspective, in Montgomery County, just north of Philly (a suburban metro county harder hit than most), 10% of positive tests have been admitted to hospital, and 2.6% of positive tests have gone on ventilators. So the subpopulation needing remdesivir is probably less than 5% of the positive cases (or 1250 of the 25,000 who tested positive here). BTW, the county population is 900,000.
    • koheripbal 7y ago
      Right, but it isn't a random sampling of that population that ends up on ventilators. For men over 65 with hypertension, it's about 50% of those who test positive. ...so a targeted application of anti-virals is definitely worthwhile.
• cameldrv 7y ago
  You can make educated guesses based on age, preexisting conditions, etc.