[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by techweenie

Well, on the one hand you have Dr Fauci saying it's not determined yet, and on the other, well, you fill in the qualifications of the 'heard on the internet or at the press conference' source.

Yeah, I like Dr. Fauci too, but I sure hope Elon's hunch is right. It's not like we are talking about leeches or some unproven, never-used-before drug.

Steven Seedhouse, a biotech analyst at Raymond James, said chloroquine was just as promising as any treatment option for COVID-19. That includes remdesivir, an antiviral drug being developed by the giant biotech company Gilead Sciences that World Health Organization officials have called "the most promising candidate" for COVID-19 treatment.

He recently analyzed the early evidence for three top drugs being tested for COVID-19 — remdesivir, chloroquine, and Kaletra, an HIV drug sold by AbbVie — and concluded that chloroquine was the most promising candidate.

"If we had to pick one of the three at this point that actually seems most likely to have the biggest impact on treating COVID-19 in the coming months/years, it would be chloroquine," he said.

Early reports about chloroquine's effectiveness have also caught the attention of Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO tweeted on Monday that it might be worth considering chloroquine for COVID-19, saying the drug saved his life when he faced a serious case of malaria.