Regardless of some people absurdly claiming that COVID-19 is just a flu, the global stats are saying otherwise. Worldometers.info announces that there are over 5.5 million infected people with the virus, and 346,979 of them had died. Luckily, the same source says that over 2.3 million of the patients were recovered. But even though there’s a significant downfall regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in plenty of countries, the situation is still pretty bad in USA, Brazil, Russia, and other countries.

So what chance does humanity have against a virus that spreads outrageously fast and kills hundreds of thousands of people? Besides the traditional methods of washing our hands and practice social distancing, there is one medicine that could kill the terrifying virus.

Researchers are placing their bets on hydroxychloroquine

President Donald Trump announced that he is taking hydroxychloroquine as a precaution against the COVID-19. But this surely isn’t a good enough reason to trust the drug, considering that the same Trump once said that the new coronavirus is just an invention of the Democrats. However, there are scientific reasons to give hydroxychloroquine a chance.

There’s still a pretty significant downside: studies of the use of the drug have shown that there could be dangerous side effects for the patients. But researchers are still initiating tests.

200 clinical trials worldwide

Testing of hydroxychloroquine and for a related drug called chloroquine have the purpose of seeing if COVID-19 infections can be prevented or illness worsening ca be diminished. There are 200 clinical trials ongoing or planned around the world for testing the two drugs.

But why do researchers have faith in hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine? It’s simple: both of them are antimalarial drugs that also have antiviral activity against many viruses, which includes SARS and MERS. Furthermore, hydroxychloroquine is also able to stop SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The drugs are ruining the coronavirus’ plans of infecting cells and multiplying itself within them.

However, one thing’s for sure: there isn’t enough data to tell if the hydroxychloroquine drug can cure COVID-19 patients or prevent them from catching the virus. We’re eagerly waiting for further investigations.