I'm curious what the doctors here (or anyone else with some expertise) think about this:
Coronavirus Epidemic Update 34: US Cases Surge, Chloroquine & Zinc Treatment Combo, Italy Lockdown
they are currently testing lots of repurposed drugs on Covid-19. At this time no drugs have been specifically studied for efficacy on COVID-19. What you mostly see are drugs proven effective for treating other viruses. Since many viruses might share similar treats, if the mechanism of action for a drug would hold true for both day Malaria and COVID-19, then it makes sense the drug could work on this new virus.
sadly you will hear a lot of stuff in the news suggesting these repurposed drugs are highly effective. I hate this because it makes people think that we are withholding drugs from people that work. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The studies in China are mostly in-situ studies. They often are not true clinical trials. So you hear them say they have the drug to 30 patients and 20 got better. Must work right? Well If the mortality rate is 3%, then I would actually expect more like 28-29 people would get better. of course the sample of 30 might have been really risky. Maybe it’s all individuals who are immunodeficient. Then I would expect 20-21 to get better naturally. So if that’s what they saw with the drug, how is it better?
to really know we need to randomize patients with the virus to a placebo and to a treatment. Then we can compare. In the China studies, they make comparisons against a non-random and thus not really comparable group. They are recommending these drugs but it’s unclear if there really is strong evidence of effectiveness or this is just desperation.
zinc reduces the length of a cold. Scientifically proven to reduce it in clinical trials. If taken early on you might be sick for, on average, about 1 day less. Woohoo.