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The World Health Organization on Monday warned that the use of plasma from recovered coronavirus patients as a treatment for the coronavirus remains experimental despite the White House's authorization of it Sunday. "The results are not conclusive" on the treatment's effectiveness, the WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a press briefing, according to The Associated Press. The same treatment has been used historically for flu and measles outbreaks and the Ebola outbreak that hit several west African nations. President Trump, announcing the emergency authorization Sunday, described the treatment as a "breakthrough." Swaminathan said the treatment remains experimental, and that,...

Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, remdesivir. Lots of drugs are getting attention as potential treatments. Could they work? Could they be dangerous? “Currently, there’s no FDA approved drug for COVID-19,” says Dr. Nitin Bhanot, an infectious diseases specialist at AHN. Hydroxychloroquine, brand-name Plaquenil, is an old drug used to prevent malaria. Also, people with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis take it to reduce inflammation. It could possibly work because the drug attaches to and blocks a cell protein the coronavirus uses to get into the cell. And it changes the chemistry inside the cell making it harder for the virus to make copies of...

Some uplifting news on the coronavirus front. The FDA announced Tuesday that it is approving the use of a new treatment for the sickest patients. The agency said that doctors can now administer blood plasma taken from patients who have recovered from the infection. This plasma contains antibodies to the virus and the hope is that by injecting these antibodies into seriously ill patients, they can better fight the infection. New York State plans to use the treatment in clinical trials. It will take some time before researchers know whether it works, but experts are optimistic.