Donald Trump’s brief stay in hospital in early October raised awareness – once again – of the variety of treatments being investigated for Covid-19.
Some therapies the president received have been on the radar for a long time, others are new to the list of potential treatments. Notably, drugs such as hydroxychloroquine that were once widely touted as a treatment were not used, having been shown to be ineffective.
Thanks to the Recovery trial, based at Oxford University, we are finding out more all the time about which therapies are useful. So, while the below won’t be the definitive answer on how to treat Covid-19, nine months into the pandemic, this is what we know so far about what works.
Corticosteroids
As early as June 2020, there was evidence that dexamethasone, a cheap steroid, could reduce the risk of death in severely ill patients with Covid-19 by up to a…