As the pandemic wears on, month after month, it’s easy to assume nothing much has changed. But it has. We’re making more progress than many people may realize.
Take Regeneron. President Donald Trump recently spoke of his efforts to usher this new therapeutic drug through the process for emergency use authorization and to make it available to the public, free of charge. This synthetic antibody cocktail was part of the president’s treatment plan when he was recently sickened with COVID-19.
His seemingly complete recovery is remarkable, considering he’s an older man with a less than ideal body weight – factors that would predispose him to worse outcomes from COVID-19.
Regeneron is just one example of how much things have changed since March. We’ve also learned how to treat the disease and minimize mortality.
For example, we’ve learned that the lethal part of the disease process is largely due to a deranged inflammatory process known as a “cytokine storm,” and that steroids, which counteract inflammation, have been shown to reduce the risk of death.