Hijacking this thread to note that it appears that it's the combination of hydroxychloroquine with zinc that's so effective.
At least according to the recent report of this LA doctor, Anthony Cardillo:
https://abc7news.com/coronavirus-drug-covid-19-malaria-hydroxychloroquine/6079864/
This guy is reporting that HCQ by itself is NOT effective, but he's also reporting that it's incredibly effective when combined with zinc: "Every patient I've prescribed [this combination] to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free."
I don't think this has been made very clear on this board. A lot of people have been hyping hydroxychloroquine by itself. While others have been hyping the combination of hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin (Z-Pack). But the azithromycin is apparently really just useful for preventing / treating opportunistic secondary infections (not that that's unimportant). But the role of HCQ is to "open the channel" for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication. Note that this explanation is consistent with that previously provided by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko.
So when people talk about preliminary studies / anecdotal reports of HCQ being (or not being) effective, it would seem to be extremely important to look at whether the HCQ was used in combination with zinc.
This guy is reporting that HCQ by itself is NOT effective, but he's also reporting that it's incredibly effective when combined with zinc: "Every patient I've prescribed [this combination] to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free."
I don't think this has been made very clear on this board. A lot of people have been hyping hydroxychloroquine by itself. While others have been hyping the combination of hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin (Z-Pack). But the azithromycin is apparently really just useful for preventing / treating opportunistic secondary infections. The role of HCQ is to open the channel for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication.
So when people talk about preliminary studies / anecdotal reports of HCQ being (or not being) effective, it would seem to be extremely important to look at whether the HCQ was used in combination with zinc.
Note that this doctor himself says that by itself hydroxychloroquine "doesn't have efficacy," but he's also reporting incredible results when used in combination with zinc: "Every patient I've prescribed [this combination] to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free." That makes sense given method of action explained by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, i.e., that the HCQ works by "opening the channel" for the zinc to get inside the cell and disrupt virus replication.
Thus any study / anecdotal report showing that HCQ doesn't work, or doesn't work very well, isn't necessarily very informative if zinc wasn't included as part of the treatment regimen.