Could two malaria drugs recently promoted by President Donald Trump heal people suffering from Covid-19? Dr. Peter Palese, the head of the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is doubtful.
Dr. Palese an expert in RNA viruses, coronavirus, and influenza pandemics says that while two the drugs (hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine) have been effective treating influenza in a lab setting, the drugs are ineffective on humans fighting the flu. He believes the same is true with treating Covid-19:
“They have studied these drugs for twenty years. They work beautifully against influenza in tissue cultures in a laboratory. But it does not work on mice. If you infect the mouse, hydroxychloroquine has no effect. And it does not—does not—work in humans against influenza. My prediction is that the drugs are completely useless in humans for treating Covid-19.”
Virus expert Dr. Peter Palese expects malaria drugs touted by President Trump to be unless against ... [+]
An effective treatment, however, might be found in the blood of COVID-19 survivors. Dr. Palese, whose lab of researchers studies the genetic and biological make-up of viruses—and how they spread—believes that a Covid-19 treatment can be derived from serum (also known are plasma) harvested from the blood of people who have already recovered from Covid-19:
“If you have been infected and recover, about three weeks down the line, you have antibodies against this virus and you are immune. One can take your serum and give it to another patient. It’s a 50-year old procedure and it really works. Many hospitals are gearing up to do this. It will all depend on how many volunteers can step-up and give blood, and how we distribute it. It’s not a panacea, and you aren’t going to give it to 300 million Americans, but it could be a very effective method to help people who are sick.”
Dr. Palese also shared with FORBES his expert insights on what key statistics we all need to watch, how the U.S. health system is fighting the disease, how the government can help hospitals, and the types of testing the US will need to develop to end social distancing. Below, an edited Q&A.
Dr. Peter Palese, the head of the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at ... [+]
Steven Bertoni: What are you watching. What key data and statistics must leaders, doctors and investors keep an eye on?
Dr. Peter Palese: You have to watch how many deaths we have in the country over the last 24 hours. That’s the most important number. Any increase over the day before, then we have a problem. If deaths start going down, then I can sleep again at night. The number of new cases is not informative because it depends on who is getting tested and how. Some tests are lousy, and the tests are not equally distributed across the country and there’s different criteria on who can get tested. Some are only testing the very sick or not testing much at all. And some cheating a few weeks ago, saying that COVID-19 cases were just the flu. With death, you can’t argue very much.
SB: What are Mt. Sinai and the nation’s hospital systems doing to combat COVID-19?
At Mt. Sinai, all research, clinical work, and elective surgery have stopped as we focus 100% on the Coronavirus. We have redirected entire departments. One of the strengths of the U.S. healthcare system is that we are flexible and able to respond fast. Our health institutions, the CDC and NIH, are the envy of the world. All my European friends are just jealous of our institutions. And our biotechnology and health research industries are hands down the best in the world. Our healthcare system is stronger than Italy’s.
SB: What can the government do to help the healthcare industry?
DP: We need a relaxation of all of these rules and regulations from the government and the FDA. We have to experiment without being scared of being sued and financially wiped-out. This is an emergency. All the different trial phases take much too long, and we can’t sustain a shutdown for very long. We won’t survive a shutdown like this as a culture or a country. We need a vaccine or an antiviral—and that will be hard to develop either in the restrictive conditions we have now.
SB: How might we end the current nationwide shutdown and restart business, and normal life, in America?
DP: Testing will play an important role. We need two kinds of tests. One that can tell if you are currently infected. And the second one that can tell if you were infected before and are now immune. If I’m sick and survive—and 99% of people will survive—then I now have antibodies for the virus and am immune. We need tests to identify which people are immune. As soon as we have those tests, we can say okay, you can go back to work.
