Read on Twitter
Finally a drug that seems to work well against COVID-19: Tabriz Uni of Med Sci team find Bromhexine prevents all treated patients in randomized trial from dying, almost all from ventilation and ICU; drastic reductions in symptoms, CRP, but not LDH.
https://bi.tbzmed.ac.ir/Files/Inpress/bi-23240.pdf
https://bi.tbzmed.ac.ir/Files/Inpress/bi-23240.pdf
The candidate drug, Bromhexine Hydrochloride, is cheap (20c per 8mg pill in NL), widely available (mass-produced over-the-counter), and has few side effects. It just thins mucus.
How it works: Some COVID-19s enter human cells by flipping a switch (TMPRSS2), which opens the cell wall so the virus can inject RNA. Bromhexine blocks that switch.
Results: Significant reductions in mortality, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation; significant reductions in dyspnea, cough, fatigue; significant reduction in CRP. Insignificant effects on fever, NLR, LDH. (+hints that insignificant results are sample size issues.)
I should also add that one of the authors is my dad, so there's some bias. But I can't think of anything I've read in the past months on treating COVID-19 that is as convincing and substantial as this. This paper needs attention (and of course scrutiny). Please share widely.
@__ice9 has written a more advanced summary here: https://twitter.com/__ice9/status/1285711393992445952?s=19
