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President Trump has been administered at least three potent drugs since announcing he tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday night: Regeneron’s lab-made antibody cocktail, the antiviral remdesivir and the steroid dexamethasone.
Two of those drugs are still experimental for the treatment of COVID-19 and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted them an emergency use authorization.
And White House physician Dr. Sean Conley admitted Monday that he would not disclose all of the medications the president is currently receiving (citing HIPAA patient privacy laws, suggesting that Trump himself gave permission to the Dr. Conley to reveal some of his medications, but not all). from them).
Remdesivir, dexamethasone and the antibody cocktail are in ongoing trials, but it is unclear if anyone other than the US Commander-in-Chief has been treated with all three.
Those three drugs are ‘as much as we know [about the president’s treatment regimen] – but I found it all really confusing, according to reports, ‘Dr. Mark Poznansky, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told DailyMail.com.
When asked if there was any precedent for treating a COVID-19 patient with all three drugs, Dr. Poznansky answered “no.”
“But individual decisions are based on the individual patient, and all bets are off when it comes to the president, the commander-in-chief,” he added.
“The implication is that clinicians believe the potential benefit outweighs the risk of using them.”
And while we have some clarity on the possible side effects of each of the drugs, how they might interact is a mystery, ‘because they just haven’t been used often enough … we don’t know about the combination,’ he said. Dr. Poznansky said.
But even on their own, the side effects of these drugs could be of particular concern to the president, considering that the steroid can cause mood swings, confusion, and aggression.
The medications you were treated with and their possible side effects are:
REGENERON’S EXPERIMENTAL ANTIBODY COCKTAIL DRUG
WHEN YOU GOT IT: Trump received a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron’s lab-made antibody cocktail on Friday.
WHAT DOES: REGN-COV2 is a combination of two versions of laboratory-made antibodies that help block the entry of coronavirus into cells.
One of the antibodies in the ‘cocktail’ is based on an antibody that mice produce in response to the coronavirus, while the other is based on an antibody isolated from one of the first US COVID-19 patients.
The hope is that treatment will lower the viral load, keep it from invading the body and wrecking the immune system, and preventing the infection from getting worse.
WHAT THE DATA SAYSREGN-COV2 is still in the early stages of the trial, but early data from its clinical trial found that it dramatically lowered viral load within a week and cut recovery time in half in patients who weren’t sick enough. to be hospitalized.
Regeneron has not yet studied the drug in seriously ill patients.
POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: The main concern is that these types of treatment occasionally trigger an “antibody-dependent enhancement”, which means that the intended treatment actually helps the virus to invade cells.
So far, the trials do not suggest that REGN-COV2 is causing this phenomenon.
Antibody treatments can also cause allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis, as well as fever, chills, nausea, diarrhea, weakness, headache, and low blood pressure.
REMDESIVIR, THE GILEAD ANTIVIRAL
WHEN YOU GOT IT: President Trump received his first dose of a five-day treatment Friday night, after he was transferred from the White House to Walter Reed National Medical Center.
Since then he has received his second and third doses of the drug.
WHAT DOES: Remdesivir is an antiviral therapy originally designed to treat Ebola.
Scientists aren’t entirely sure why, but it helps prevent the coronavirus from making more copies of itself.
WHAT THE DATA SAYS: Late-stage clinical trials of remdesivir found that patients treated with the drug were more likely to recover within 11 days than those who did not.
Their chances of survival were about 40 percent better. In May, the drug became the first to gain emergency use clearance from the FDA for the treatment of seriously ill patients. Since then, that approval has been extended to any hospitalized patient.
THE POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: May cause nausea, vomiting, chills, sweating, or dizziness. The drug can also harm liver function, which means that patients must be closely monitored.
There were some indications that Trump’s liver and kidney function were not optimal last night, but Dr. Conley said Monday that the president was simply “dehydrated.”
DEXAMETASONE, THE $ 6 STEROID WITH COMMON PSYCHIATRIC SIDE EFFECTS
When he got it: The president received a dose of dexamethasone on Saturday after he developed a high fever and his blood oxygen levels fell below 94 percent on two occasions.
WHAT DOES: Dexamethasone is a cheap steroid known to reduce inflammation. It is already approved for use under other conditions in the US.
WHAT THE DATA SAYS: Although it has not yet received emergency approval in the US, dexamethasone is the most promising treatment so far for the coronavirus.
In a major UK study, the steroid reduced the risk of death by 36 percent for patients sick enough to need respirators and by 18 percent for patients who only need supplemental oxygen.
However, it seemed harmful in early stages or in milder cases of illness: 18 percent of those taking the drug died compared to 14 percent of those receiving usual care.
For that reason, many doctors were alarmed to see that President Trump was treated with the drug because its use suggested that he was very ill or that doctors were taking the risk of giving it to him early.
THE POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: The steroid is powerful and can cause bloating, headaches, stomach pain, nausea, weakness, dizziness, trouble sleeping, vision changes, skin problems, severe allergic reactions, including mood swings.
These mood swings include aggression, agitation, and confusion.
“Steroids are always very dangerous drugs to use,” Dr. Edward Jones-Lopez, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, told Reuters.
‘That is why (dexamethasone) is used in severely to critically ill patients … There may be neuropsychiatric side effects. These are drugs that we use very, very carefully. ‘
