quote:
I work in the medical field as a nurse anesthetist and I am exposed to and intubating these patients while taking all the precautions. I was speaking with a physician friend of mine and he said Hydroxchloroquine suppresses the immune system. It’s not to be taken lightly as it prevents the body from identifying and creating antibodies to fight against it. If you are able to survive an infection, you are then susceptible to get re-infected.

So most of this is mildly incorrect regarding this treatment.

This drug has a couple of different effects, some we found out much later.

First it was an antimalarial. Likely hundreds of thousands of American soldiers took this whole in certain areas over the years.

Secondly is they them found out that is an immunomodulating drug that can be used for treatment of certain auto immune diseases like lupus.

Third, it was found to have some events versus a previous different carona outbreak.

So it was tied against this one.

It appears to work by making it more difficult for the virus to get in and replicate. That is one mechanism if action. The second is it is a mild immunomodulating drug and may help prevent the cytokine storm that leads to the pneumonia/fluid build up in the lungs.

When the op says it may help some, this is my thought. Excerpt I would say it likely helps some.

The situation is almost everyone who gets this survives unless they are really old. So even with no treatment most get better by themselves.

I think this is most beneficial given earlier in the course of the illness. It decreases the amount of people who need hospitalization, and then decreases the percent of hospitalized that need to be intubated and then decreases the amount that die.

Just my thought. And a China position paper said the same thing. I don't trust the Chinese at all but this would appear to make sense.

Anyway, I think everyone over 60 or those with underlying medical problems should get the double treatment as soon as diagnosed. Younger people should get it as soon as they have any issues.

I do know some feel that zinc may help. I'm fine adding that, don't know if it's necessary but perhaps it helps as ace midnight suggested.

So no it's not a cure. It may help people because it's not a definite it will work and you likely would've gotten better without it. But I think it is a potentially useful therapy that at this point is being used in many countries to treat so if a loved one had this who was at risk I would much prefer them to be on this than not.