My Question to the Government on medicines provided to treat Covid-19

The Department of Health and Social Care has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (133606):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the progress that has been made in the testing of (a) anti-viral treatments, (b) immune modulators and (c) other existing medicines to help provide improved treatments for covid-19. (133606)
Tabled on: 06 January 2021

Answer:
Jo Churchill:
The Department is carefully considering all available evidence from clinical trials in the United Kingdom and overseas around the potential of different drugs across a variety of different modes of action for use in treating COVID-19.

On 7 January 2021, the REMAP-CAP clinical trial published results showing that two immunomodulators, tocilizumab and sarilumab, reduced the relative risk of death by 24% for critically ill patients and time spent in intensive care by up to 10 days.

The UK national priority platform clinical trials – RECOVERY, REMAP-CAP and PRINCIPLE – can test both licensed and unlicensed drugs. These are adaptive trials, meaning that results are monitored on an ongoing basis and treatments which are clearly ineffective will be discontinued. Trials may also add new potential treatments if other evidence suggests promise.

22 Comments

  1. Nigel
    January 26, 2021

    The Germans are claiming that their tests show that the Oxford vaccine has a very low efficacy. Did the use the same testing facility as VW used for their engine emissions certification?

    1. Fred H
      January 26, 2021

      Then I suggest they cancel their part of the EU order. Otherwise ship them to us.

  2. London Nick
    January 26, 2021

    1. Vague questions will always get vague answers.

    2. Multi-part questions will result in civil servants choosing which part they most want to answer and ignoring the others. So in this case they answered (b) while ignoring (a) and (c).

    3. Instead of asking a question with three parts to it, you need to ask three separate questions. You don’t get charged for each question you ask!!!

    4. You need to ask for specific details, such as a list of all the drugs tested and, in each case, the outcome orconclusion.

    5. Having obtained the limited informationthat two drugs are effective in reducing hospitalisation time and mortality, you now need to ask if these are now administered to ALL patients as a matter of routine – and if not, why not.

    1. a-tracy
      January 27, 2021

      I said similar London Nick but must have been too wordy. You are absolutely correct. To get back to some normality we want to know about treatments, we don’t stop life for other illnesses spread in the community we treat them.

    2. formula57
      January 27, 2021

      @ London Nick – I would suggest you could enjoy much success setting up a business to school MPs but that it occurs to me Sir John deliberately fashioned his question to see of the Department of Health was going to be candid and honest because it was confident of the appropriateness and completeness of its own actions or resort to the type of stratagems to which you allude. That it has so resorted is as revealing as it is disappointing, something we would not have found out were it not for Sir John’s adroitness.

      1. J. Butties
        January 27, 2021

        Spot on f57, Sir J has flushed out the current attitude of the Johnson regime.

        Inadequate, lacking leadership and pathetically hopeless. No mention of Ivermectin , Vit D! This response by the Ministers Department illustrates this unequivocally.

        London Nick’spic is equally a pathetic attempt to deride Sir J’s modus operandi. It shows no respect for decades of HoC experience that Sir J has obtained.

        I hope Sir J’s next question is to enquire what action the Home Office is going to take on the murderous experiments that were undertaken on the evaluation of HCQ+zinc ? Tests using many 1000’s of dose levels above those normally used and on very ill people i.e not prophylactic actions!

        There must and will be an accounting of what is going on.

    3. Dennis
      January 27, 2021

      Yes, that’s right – take note JR.

  3. Mactheknife
    January 26, 2021

    So they only partially answered your question and provided no real detail such as if and when these immunomodulators would be used or are being used.
    It seems we are behind the curve compared to other countries in re-purposing existing drugs to aid recovery. I always sense a reluctance from the government to go further into this. They seem to think the vaccine is the answer to everything.

  4. MiC
    January 26, 2021

    What is most important is that people should not become desperately ill and need these therapies in the first place.

    Prevention is far better than cure.

    So the safety measures aimed at that need to continue in parallel with vaccination.

    1. London Nick
      January 26, 2021

      I have previously demolished the pro-lockdown nonsense you and a few others put out. You were unable to respond then, and yet you keep on with your drivel. It tells us all we need to know about you and your arguments. There is NO logical case for the lockdown.

    2. Narrow Shoulders
      January 26, 2021

      You are wrong Marty

      Effective, over the counter treatment is the panacea. Failing that hospital treatment that clears beds quickly saves the NHS.

      You can not stop a virus but you can treat it

      1. MiC
        January 27, 2021

        How were ebola and smallpox stopped then?

        1. dixie
          January 28, 2021

          Ebola wasn’t stopped, there was an outbreak last June.
          A world-wide Smallpox vaccination programme up to the 1980s halted the spread of that virus in humans but the world was not locked indoors till the vaccine was available. Even then mutations are possible and the recent generations were not vaccinated.

  5. Hope
    January 26, 2021

    Invermectin again highlited by studies in an article in a Con Woman article today. Is it really down to big pharma companies not wanting competition or is it written in the govt. contract not to buy these?

    Apparently very cheap.

    1. Zorro
      January 27, 2021

      It’s ALL about the money!

      Zorro

  6. Hope
    January 26, 2021

    “….Truly didn’t everything we could…” is Johnson ever capable of telling the Truth?

    Johnson let people freely travel in tomthis countey from virus hotspots includingmWuhan achina when other countries refused! What did he think China was building hospitals at break neck speed for!
    No track trace or isolate after isolating first cruise ship! It was bloody obvious to the village idiot this was the first thing to do as an island. Handcock told parliament NHS prepared etc in January! Themfacts show the opposite was true. WTF is Johnson saying? Has he lost his marbles?

    1. Narrow Shoulders
      January 26, 2021

      There were many more infections brought in from Europe during skiing season than ever arrived from China.

  7. Fedupsoutherner
    January 26, 2021

    While this government is still talking about people entering the country and being made to quarantine tge virus is still spreading. Too much talk and not enough early action has been Boris’s downfall.

  8. forthurst
    January 27, 2021

    In Cordoba, Spain, there has been, a small scale trial of a Vitamin D derivative on 76 patients seriously ill with Covid-19. Of those, 50 were treated with Cacifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D3)
    and 26 were not. Of the treated group, none needed admission to an ICU whereas of the untreated group, 13 needed admission to an ICU of which one died.

    Vitamin D as adequate sunlight or Cod Liver Oil at 4,000 i.u. per day (2 desert spoons) will provide a prophylactic dose; however, it takes about two weeks for the body to convert the Vit D into the form, Calcidefiol, which is active in Calcium transport in cells and will ensure an effective immune response to a Covid-19 infection.

  9. Bryan Harris
    January 27, 2021

    “carefully considering all available evidence from clinical trials “

    Then they need to consider a lot faster before imposed lock-downs become a way of life….!

  10. MartinC
    January 27, 2021

    So, no mention by Ms Churchill of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine (in conjunction with zinc), or colchicine. Talk about dragging their feet.

    Of course by assuming dictatorial powers, the responsibility lies completely with the Government. If it goes wrong, it’s their reputation that will be trashed, and the Conservatives will be toast. Roads to hell are paved with ‘good intentions’.

    On the other hand, if the Government releases its control and permits doctors to prescribe according to their understanding, knowledge and expertise, then, perhaps, the true efficacy of these treatments will be fully appreciated by the population, rather than just in further ‘studies’.

  11. Mike Wroe
    January 28, 2021

    REGEN-COV and Ivermectin. Why are we not using these effective treatments and saving lives?

Comments are closed.