sciencemag.org
49%
423
Can boosting interferons, the body's frontline virus fighters, beat COVID-19?
Meredith WadmanScience's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.On 30 April, Valerie McCarthy’s test result confirmed that her grinding fatigue and pummeling headaches were caused by the new coronavirus. She wasn’t hospitalized, but the very next day, a nurse at Stanford University Medical Center gave the 52-year-old marathon runner an injection that contained either a placebo or a natural virus fighter: interferon.McCarthy was Patient 16 in a clinical trial that, it’s hoped, will help fill a huge void in treatments for COVID-19: Doctors have no drugs that, given early, have been proven to prevent infection or help beat back the virus before it takes hold.