[JoshuaEddy]

From discussion the scientific /r/Covid19 subreddit:

> Flawed article (not testing in cells expressing TMPRSS2 and / or Furin), gets upvoted 800 times... the usual Reddit COVID19 story... Two months ago an article said pretty much the same. Both articles only test antiviral properties in Vero E6 cells, which is not useful, since HCQ is also very effective in Vero E6 cells, but overall underperforms.

https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/comments/ihvkku/feline_coro...

[sradman]

Why would spike binding matter for a protease inhibitor that works within the cell? Regardless, human kidney organoids with ACE2 receptors are available [1] so the question switches to why the human kidney organoid people don't coordinate with the GC376 drug makers for fast in-vitro experiments.

This is where the WHO and its member nation states should have stepped up. I'm assuming that I'm misunderstanding some fundamental aspect of the drug development process since Apeiron APN01 seemed like a promising potential treatment in April but it appears to have followed the status-quo human trial pace.

[1] https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(20)30399-8.pdf

[Izkata]

> > since HCQ is also very effective in Vero E6 cells, but overall underperforms.

...didn't Switzerland accidentally prove hydroxychloroquine works? During the period it was banned (with a two-week lag time for the virus to run its course) the death rate among resolved cases nearly tripled (scroll down to the first graph):

http://www.francesoir.fr/societe-sante/covid-19-hydroxychlor...

[konschubert]

This doesn’t exclude the very possible possibility that the death rate spiked for another reason