Review of how COVID treatments evolved over time from monoclonal antibodies to antiviral pills

How COVID treatments evolved over time from monoclonal antibodies to antiviral pills It's hard to imagine a time when treatments weren't available for COVID-19. Now, two years later, there are many treatments both for patients who are experiencing mild to moderate symptoms and those who end up hospitalized. On the second anniversary of the WHO's declaration, doctors reflected on the evolution of COVID treatments and the variety that are accessible. YahooNews

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"To be honest, we didn't know [how to treat patients]," Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Duke University School of Medicine, told ABC News. "It was pretty awful. I think we had some historical memory of having seen similar viruses when SARS and MERS appeared. So what you saw is folks reaching somewhat haphazardly to drugs that we knew, at least in the test tube or in small clinical trials in those previous viruses, to be effective."

Several drugs were tested, including some that turned out to have no benefit, including hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, and lopinavir-ritonavir, used to treat HIV.

Hospitals worked to get people into randomized control trials or gave drugs under the option of compassionate use.

"In our institution, we actually adopted an approach that we did not use drugs unless it was done under a clinical trial setting," Dr. Raymund Razonable, an infectious diseases specialist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, told ABC News.

In May 2020, remdesivir became the first drug approved for emergency use by the FDA to treat patients with severe COVID cases. ...