Finally

A week ago, I was watching an interview on MSNBC between Rachel Maddow and some eminent doctor (sorry, I forgt who at this point) where he brought brought up that there viral testing on SARS-based drugs – not that they’d work a vaccine against the coronavirus, but being in the same family they could lessen some symptoms. 

It was a fascinating story, but I didn't didn't hear another word on the subject for a week. It was utterly bewildering to me and borderline infuriating, since it was the closest thing to -- if not "good news -- at least hopefully encouraging news that I'd hears since the health crisis began.  When talking with friends, I’ve been bringing the subject up up to find out if they had heard anything about this, and no one had.  Just that one interview I saw a week ago.  And it was driving me nuts.  How does that NOT get discussed?  Even if only to ask all the questions one would have about it efficacy, availability, testing and more. 
 
And then -- finally -- yesterday morning, I saw a chyron on MSNBC about Trump fast-tracking viral testing.  And then later in the day, they were actually having a discussion about it on MSNBC  The conversation was about red tape being cut to fast-track studies and trials.  The risk of that is if you fast-track testing there could be side effects that can cause problems for some people.  So, there’s a balance between how to best do it.  But they were saying, yes, drugs do exist to deal with SARS but we don’t know how they’d work with the coronavirus and in the real world, rather than just in a petri dish.  Hence, the testing and trials. 

And again, later still in the day, Rachel Maddow had an eminent doctor from Harvard on as a guest to specifically talk about viral testing of existing drugs. He said it wasn't likely a panacea, since -- although there are similarities to the diseases -- they were different, and the best drug will be when a new vaccine is ready, though that could be, as we've heard, a year away up to two years.  But the testing of viral drugs is going on, and if something beneficial is found that at least has some impact, it could lessen the strain on the health system, and also -- being an already approved drug -- wouldn't have to go through the approval process.  And so it would just be a case of increasing output.

But – the point is, whatever the result -- at LAST they’re talking about it.  And it's so good to have something realistically positive to talk about.