Drug Trial

I am what my mother would call a scab-picker. I have a little problem, then I pick at it, and worry at it, and worry about it until it’s a major problem. Then I back up, look at my new enhanced problem, and say, “Oh, that’s ridiculous, that’ll never happen.” Sometimes, I consign myself to the Inevitable, but usually I am comforted.

This is why I did a Google search on “Gilenya Covid-19,” because perhaps my drug is the very worst drug to be on at this time. I did need to have respiratory tests regularly during the trial because they suspected there might be some breathing side effects. So that, plus the lack of any lymphocytes to fight off infections, would probably seal my fate and I wanted to know that up front.

The very first Google hit referenced a Chinese clinical trial that will test for the effects of Gilenya on Covid-19, and I thought, well, glad I’m not in that trial: I would die. I was surprised by two things: a) that it was the first hit and b) that any doctor would think Gilenya would help the situation.

Gary surmised that doctors are so desperate they are just feeding every drug in earth to Covid-19 sufferers to see if one is by chance a miracle cure.

The second hit revealed that some people think the respiratory issues that lead to Covid death might be because of “an overly-enthusiastic immune response,” and that Gilenya (aka fingolimod) might be the ticket to killing that immune response. So I suppose that yes, Gilenya might make it easier to get sick, but it also might make it harder to die.

So there you are. Scab well picked. I might be invincible.