A study from Oxford University has confirmed the remarkable effectiveness of common asthma treatment Budesonide for treating COVID-19.
First published as a pre-print in February and now as a peer-reviewed paper in the Lancet, the STOIC phase 2 randomised study found that inhaled Budesonide given to patients with COVID-19 within seven days of symptom onset reduced the relative risk of requiring urgent care or hospitalisation by 90%. It also resulted in a quicker recovery time for those who experienced fever and other symptoms and fewer persistent symptoms after 28 days, suggesting it could help to reduce the incidence of ‘long Covid’ in those given it as an early treatment.
Budesonide is a corticosteroid used in the long-term management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The study, which is supported by the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and AstraZeneca, involved 146 people, half of whom took 800 micrograms of the medication twice a day while half were on usual care. It was confirmed to be safe (unsurprising for an established medicine), with only five (7%) participants reporting self-limiting adverse events.
Professor Mona Bafadhel of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, who led the trial, said: “I am heartened that a relatively safe, widely available and well studied medicine such as an inhaled steroid could have an impact on the pressures we are experiencing during the pandemic.”
The trial came into being because clinicians noted early on in the pandemic that patients with chronic respiratory disease, who are often prescribed inhaled steroids, were significantly under-represented among those admitted to hospital with COVID-19, despite the condition being a likely risk factor.
Budesonide is unusual because, unlike Vitamin D, Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, it has not (yet) been (unfairly) rubbished in the mainstream press and medical literature. For those other potential treatments you can see the studies for yourself here and read a fair overview here.
If a highly effective early outpatient treatment for COVID-19 becomes available then that may change everything in terms of vaccine programmes and exit strategies. The COVID-19 vaccines are currently authorised not under ordinary marketing licences but under temporary emergency approval. This approval is conditional on there being a current medical emergency. In the EU emergency approval can only be for an “unmet medical need”, and the approval is reviewed annually. In the US there must be no “adequate, approved, and available alternatives”. In the UK a disease must be a “serious risk or potentially serious risk to human health”, though there is no requirement to review the temporary approval.
An efficacy in reducing serious disease by 90% would rival the reported efficacy of the vaccines. The trial did not include many in high risk groups such as the elderly or those with underlying conditions, but vaccine effectiveness is also reduced in these groups.
As proven effective treatments like Budesonide come online, will the Government’s case for draconian interventions and coerced vaccinations, even on its own twisted terms, fall away?
