Celebrate Oxford Covid Drug News, But Not With Travel Stocks
If a decades-old steroid can prevent coronavirus deaths, there are likely more benefits to reap from related therapies. Caution is still warranted.
A decades old steroid provides hope to severely ill patients, if not airline shares.
Photographer: digicomphoto/iStockphoto via Getty Images
As Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in the U.S. and other parts of the world, Oxford University scientists provided a much-needed piece of good news Tuesday: A large, randomized trial in the U.K. that compared dexamethasone — a generic steroid — to standard treatment found that the drug cut the risk of death in severely ill patients.
The result comes with caveats. Researchers have only disclosed a limited press release's worth of data at this point and should make haste to publish more details. Until then, some caution is warranted. But the fact that dexamethasone appears to show promise is encouraging and its sheer affordability could help it save lives. In fact, it’s already gained approval for use in treating Covid-19 by Britain’s National Health Service. As I wrote earlier this month, with the virus still raging and no assurance of a safe and effective vaccine arriving any time soon, effective treatments are going to be essential in managing the pandemic.