I've hinted at it a couple of times...
First, the question: Why are drugs that are NOT anti-viral drugs, but that are proven effective against malaria... which is NOT a virus... also proving to be effective against THIS virus... ?
There might be a lot of different answers... but knowing why is important...
Second, if you don't answer the first question... why would you, or why would you not, proceed to ask related questions about the efficacy, or not, of other anti-malarials ?
More than one way to avoid skinning a cat... ?
There is obvious linearity in the leap from chichona... to hydroxychloroquine. And, as per usual, the transitions from traditional herbal remedies to patented drugs... have the same features as apparent here... greater benefits from the control in standardized dosing, one of, perhaps not the least of the benefits obtainable from some pre-processing, at least ? The herb works... so it is a good template from which to study the modes of action... find out what in the herb works... and what in it is best avoided... and then try to make something that works like the herb... only better... which still necessarily requires "do no harm" be a part of that solution... for it to be a solution ?
I'm an advocate for expanded awareness of "natural medicine"... which doesn't make me an idiot willing to ignore "natural" does not mean "risk free", or advocate that natural is "better" when it is clearly not "better" ? Far too much crazy ideology already infusing everything in medicine... so mine is... do what works the best to provide a benefit with the fewest harms... and don't give a shit about others boundary issues. Do what works.
The key advantage of herbs... is that they may provide solutions that aren't otherwise accessible... but if there are clearly superior alternatives that are accessible... access them instead... and avoid the risks that come in greater measure with uncontrolled risks... including the risk, unless you are out in the field collecting the herbs yourself... not only of product contamination, but of deliberate alteration or substitution in the market... If the product is a tree bark powder... how do you know you're getting the right sawdust ? Buy whole herbs and process them yourself... and lower risks, including the risk of fraud in the market... if you can recognize the real product and its features... Just sayin'... Can't tell you how many times I bought a pound of this or that... and then just threw it away...
Wandering... back to the core issue...
If Chinchona and Quinine "worked" as anti-malarials... why did so many Frenchmen (22,000) die in the failed attempts at digging the Panama Canal ? In the history of that affair... there was something else that happened BETWEEN the expected in the dependence on Chinchona / Quinine (or, gin and tonics) and the introduction of Chloroquine (in 1934)?
Methylene Blue (MB) (proposed by Ehrlich in 1891) was the frontline preventive anti-malarial drug... that helped allow the American's (1904 - 1914) to complete the canal ? It's a fascinating bit of history... in medicine... involving big names like Gorgas, Finley, and Walter Reed... extending Pasteur's germ theory into innovation in what are now very basic public health concepts... but also Paul Ehrlich... a very big name in science still today... who is also consequentially responsible for the legacy in an error as he "popularized the concept of a magic bullet."
If anti-malarials as a class do happen to work against this virus... WHY is that... HOW do they work ?
What is it about THIS coronavirus... that is shares as a weakness with the spirochetes that cause malaria ?
Not being a lawyer, here, only asking questions I know the answer to ? Just asking interesting questions. |
