
Cocktail of flu, HIV drugs appears to help fight coronavirus: Thai doctors - shill
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1ZW0GQ
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anonuser123456
Gilead is also trying the same with remdesivir.
[https://www.scmp.com/tech/science-
research/article/3048579/c...](https://www.scmp.com/tech/science-
research/article/3048579/coronavirus-case-us-treated-experimental-gilead-drug-
may-spur)

Sample size of 1, but in both cases, the patient appears to have gone from
very sick to normal vitals in 48 hrs.

The really nice thing about lopinavir/ritonavir if it works will be... we've
already got a lot of it.

Edit: Both cases being the separate administrations of remdesivir &
lopinavir/ritonavir.

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carrozo
Does this mean that those already on these drugs are more resistant to the new
variant of coronavirus, or more susceptible because their normal regime of
medication isn’t able to remediate?

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pasttense01
Too small a sample to make any statements about effectiveness.

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Jyaif
How did they discover this? When a new virus appears, do labs test all the
existing drugs against it to check if something sticks?

~~~
quickquackquock
It might be - ironically - due to that Indian group's preprint with crappy
method that suggested the virus was intentionally hybridised from HIV and
coronavirus.

[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927871v1....](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927871v1.full.pdf)

If you took that preprint at face value, before the flaws were pointed out
e.g.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ewtmnq/uncanny_sim...](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ewtmnq/uncanny_similarity_of_unique_inserts_in_the/fg4k2ak/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ewtt6f/uncanny_sim...](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ewtt6f/uncanny_similarity_of_unique_inserts_in_the/fg4dxe5/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ewtt6f/uncanny_sim...](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ewtt6f/uncanny_similarity_of_unique_inserts_in_the/fg4l51v/)

Then mixing up a cocktail of flu and HIV anti-virals would be a smart move.

If this result pans out, it might just be a remarkable piece of serendipity
from some shitty science.

~~~
dylz
It has nothing to do with the crap preprint. There are journal articles about
HIV medication treating SARS-CoV from over a decade ago.

~~~
quickquackquock
> It has nothing to do with the crap preprint.

I am glad you are here to tell us exactly how it went down in Thailand.

Those same papers were also available for the last month of treatments being
attempted and yet we see this news from Thailand of 'recovery in 48 hours'
about 48-72 hours following widespread sharing of that (crap) preprint. It may
be coincidence, it may be serendipity.

I don't think either of us knows what happened here, but one of us certainly
thinks they do.

Presumably you are right, but in my own experience, a recent headline on
social media is as likely to prompt an idea as a journal article published 10
years ago.

Which is why we are all here on hacker news looking for ideas, instead of all
busily reading issues of journals published in 2010. Am I wrong?

Interesting comment here btw:

[https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/extdrc/thailand_...](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/extdrc/thailand_cures_coronavirus_with_antihiv_drug/fgcth7l/)

"Although 2019-nCoV is NOT an influenza virus, but a coronavirus strain, it
contains hemagglutinin-esterase proteins on its surface, which unlike
Influenza A and B's HA that binds sialic acid, binds 9-O-acetylsialic acid
instead. I assume that the similarities between these two receptor molecules
are what lead doctors to use this influenza drug, in hopes that it also
inhibits coronavirus HA-esterase to some degree."

~~~
rubatuga
Please stop spreading (wrong) rumours.

~~~
quickquackquock
Can you please specify which (wrong) 'rumours' you believe I am spreading,
exactly, and why you know they are (wrong)?

By my count, in my comments I posted one link to a scientific preprint (noting
that it was very questionable), 3 links to discussion of the scientific merits
of that preprint, and 1 link to a scientific discussion relating to the
structure of the 2019-nCoV virus. As well, my own little piece of entirely
idle speculation, clearly and repeatedly indicated as being such and not as a
fact.

By my understanding of the word 'rumour', as a native speaker of English,
nothing here qualifies as a 'rumour' or 'rumour-spreading'.

A rumour would have the form something like 'I have heard that … (completely
unevidenced claim)'.

FWIW, a tip back to you - telling someone else to shut up without explanation
of what exactly it is you're referring to, or why you think they should shut
up, is considered rude on any discussion forum, and also in real life
conversations too.

Further, it encourages others to behave the same way.

For those reasons, please stop posting curt and rude shut-up messages anywhere
on the internet. It is far more harmful to internet communities than anyone's
idle speculation or references to discussions on other forums.

If you want someone to do something, anywhere in life, explain clearly what
you want and clearly why. It doesn't need to be detailed but at least it
should be clear. Being a polite netizen takes more than using the word
'please' at the start of a sentence.

Also, please do not expect other people to be able to telepathically intuit
your mental state in a discussion, as nobody can do this, and please do not
simply issue vague commands to other people, because it is rude.

