At this point should Americans be surprised, by the impressive worldwide support, for a 50 year old gout drug that likely not very many of us have ever heard of! I was introduced to it on this chart:
https://public.tableau.com/profile/jchamie#!/vizhome/WhatisthebestmedicinetofightCOVID-19/DRUGSThough falls down a little on the opinions on safety:
https://www.drugs.com/sfx/colchicine-side-effects.htmlhttps://duckduckgo.com/?q=colchicine+for+COVID-19&t=h_&ia=webhttps://www.drugs.com/medical-answers/colchicine-treat-covid-19-coronavirus-3535211/"Colchicine is being used in a clinical trial for patients with COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The trial is to find out whether short-term treatment with colchicine will reduce lung complications and the rate of death in COVID-19 patients.
What is Colchicine?
Colchicine is inexpensive medication that has been in use in the United States since 1969.
It is used for its anti-inflammatory effect on gout and it reduces attacks in familial Mediterranean fever.
How does Colchicine work in treating COVID-19?
In the clinical trial called COLCORONA colchicine is being used to reduce the excessive inflammatory reaction caused by coronavirus that may lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), organ failure and death.
If you become infected with coronavirus, your immune system sends useful immune chemicals to the affected areas of the lungs to help fight the infection, which is good because this is how you recover from an infection. However in some people there is an overreaction by the immune system called a “cytokine storm” causing too many immune messengers to be made. This means major parts of the body become very inflamed and they can not work properly. The lungs become congested which causes severe breathing problems and pneumonia. The heart, liver and kidneys can also become very inflamed which can lead to serious complications, even organ failure and death.
Colchicine will be used for its anti inflammatory effects when treating COVID-19. By reducing the excessive inflammation, it is hoped that the body’s immune system will be able to fight coronavirus, and reduce the complications of pneumonia, organ failure and death"
Wow on this search:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=colchicine+for+COVID-19+cytokine+storm&t=h_&ia=webhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32937800/"
At the end of the 28 day follow-up, patients receiving colchicine were approximately
five times more likely to be discharged (odds ratio, 5.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.25-20.1; p = 0.023) and when comparing mortality,
there were 3 deaths (9.1%) in patients receiving colchicine versus 11 deaths (33.3%) in the groups receiving standard of care (odds ratio, 0.20; 95% confidence interval, 0.05-0.80; p = 0.023)."
