Dr. Deborah Birx: Anti-malarial drug showing early promise in coronavirus fight

<p>Chloroquine, a widely used anti-malaria pill that was first approved in the U.S. in 1949, is showing early promise in the treatment of the coronavirus.</p><p>White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Wednesday that early laboratory research and anecdotal reports from using the drug in patients with COVID-19 have shown encouraging signs.</p><p>"There are things that look really good in cell culture against the virus that may look good in small animals and then don't have an impact in humans and so those are the pieces that we're looking at very carefully," she said at a press conference.</p><p>This backs up earlier reporting by Just the News' Christine Dolan who wrote about how doctors are finding new uses for old drugs, includingchloroquine and antiviral drugs already approved and used to fight MERS and SARS.</p><p>There are many clinical studies going on around the world in testing chloroquine, including one from French researcherDidier Raoult who reportedly said that chloroquine appeared to shorten the time that COVID-19 patients are infectious.</p><p>Birx said that while these reports are encouraging, it's too early to say chloroquine is an effective and scalable treatment.</p><p>"Of course there's always anecdotal reports and we're trying to figure out how many anecdotal reports equal real scientific breakthroughs."</p>