A pill to cure COVID-19? It is possible

The COVID-19 vaccine was a worldly effort that resulted in the fastest vaccine ever made. The shot put a doorstop on the pandemic and allowed millions of people to feel safe and return to a sense of normalcy.

Now that there is a vaccine that will drastically reduce the chances of contracting the disease, the U.S. government is interested in a pill that could treat COVID-19 infections.

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Photo from CDC via Unsplash

As the New York Times reports, the US government is investing $ 3 billion in research into a pill to fight COVID-19. This funding will accelerate a program to facilitate clinical trials of pills in development with the goal of completing a first generation of pills by the end of the year. The program will also work on pills that can treat other viruses and prevent future pandemics.

Antiviral pills are used to treat a wide variety of conditions including HIV, influenza, and more. While there is a year of evidence and data to work with, for most of the pandemic, doctors struggled to cure those suffering from COVID-19.

Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz via Unsplash

The pill would ideally work if taken early in the disease progression, quickly attacking the infection and preventing it from spreading and spreading, causing complications in most people. However, despite the promising pills in the program, it is difficult to get a working pill on the first try, so experts believe it will take a few years to get a working prescription for COVID-19.

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The program would help develop pills that can treat coronaviruses, flaviviruses (which are mainly transmitted by ticks and mosquitoes), and more. Even if the pills don’t work right away, they create a foundation that could help contain future pandemics and save millions of lives.