WHAT WERE THE ODDS...:

There is not, as of writing, any medication which has been shown in controlled trials to significantly hasten recovery from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus that's become a global pandemic. Last week, there were nonetheless some new developments on that front. One drug seems to show signs of promise. Another has seen red flags raised.

The one that's raised hopes isn't the one that President Trump has been hyping.

Again: it is not the case that we have new, incontrovertible proof of a drug's efficacy. But news of a trial demonstrating some benefit for covid-19 patients from the anti-viral drug remdesivir helped push the stock market higher on Friday. A report from the National Institutes of Health further suggested that the drug had halted the progression of covid-19 -- at least in monkeys.

For the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, the news was less positive. There's still no demonstrated evidence that improvements after taking the drug are causal. A number of controlled studies in fact failed to demonstrate evidence that hydroxychloroquine or a related drug, chloroquine, had an effect on the disease. A New York family blames the drug for causing their mother's heart attack -- an unproven claim but one in line with concerns about use of the drug. The CIA even warned its employees about using the drug due to the possibility of "sudden cardiac death."

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