Life has mostly pressed on since covid started fourteen centuries ago. Several of the more annoying problems caused by that spiky microscopic ball of nope have been muzzled to a whimper. Between vaccines and treatments, it’s medically possible to prevent most severe cases of covid.
Then there’s long covid, the last bastion of mystery tangled in its RNA. So far, there are no proven treatments, and no evidence that anything prevents it.
At least, there wasn’t.
Today’s Moment of Science… Long Covid, Metformin, and the failed clinical trial that wasn’t.
Myriad drugs that are already on the market have been thrown at covid as possible treatments. These include medications used for treating lupus, angina, Joe Rogan’s horse’s parasites (my band name), high blood pressure, and even goddamn boner pills. Call the doctor if your covid is still hard in four hours.
Some turned out to be malarkey, fading into obscurity before the ink was dry on their preprints. Others… were likewise fucking bullshit, but gained little cult followings. An argument that came up in their favor frequently was that “these drugs are safe, tested, and readily available.” All true statements, none of which translated to doing fuckall against a deadly virus.
In a study conducted in 2021 published to the New England Journal of Medicine, three medications were given yet another chance to succeed or- big spoiler alert here- fail.
Over 1,400 patients were enrolled. Within three days of a confirmed diagnosis and less than seven days after the onset of symptoms, patients were administered either a placebo or one of the drugs being tested. The anti-parasitic ivermectin, an SSRI called fluvoxamine used in the treatment of OCD, and the diabetes medication metformin were all being evaluated for their ability to do goddamn anything.
Did patients get better faster with the real drugs than they did with placebo? Not even by a minute.
But wait.
Why go through the trouble of conducting a whole other study when you can just ask the people who got those delicious free drugs if they’ll track any covidian symptoms for a year? Worst that happens is you find out a bit more nothing.
It wasn’t a miracle, but it was a lot fucking better than nothing.
Over the following ten months, 10.4% of study patients who received the placebo developed long covid. Give or take the same for ivermectin and fluvoxamine patients. On the other hand, 6.3% of the metformin patients developed symptoms, a stunning 42% reduction in their risk of developing long covid.
The paper was just published last week, and we have to remember that it was just one study. Trial participants were all 30 years old or older with a BMI above 25. More data is needed to establish how well these results translate to the general population. Without establishing dosing guidelines for covid more thoroughly, it’s a smidge ill-advised for folks to take a medication that lowers blood sugar if they have normal blood sugar. But even if it’s only a viable preventative for some of us, as long as we’re living with covid, it means millions fewer people will be with it for the long haul.
This has been your Moment of Science, cleverly avoiding getting long covid by already having long covid.
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Well, it’d be nice to have some peer review first. Replication studies would also be nice.
Because, if valid, it could suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction may well be part of long COVID. Or, the whole entire thing could just be unicorn farts, triggered by excessively torturing P into submission.
I’ve been inclined to consider endothelial dysfunction, given the clotting issues and cardiac damages observed (including my own damaged mitral valve and my daughter’s constellation of symptoms in her own personal case of long COVID).
Sure couldn’t be I didn’t clap my hands hard enough, Tinker Bell had to go to doctor to get rid of that clap.
Still, if anyone has some pixie dust to spare, I could really use some next time I fart in the damned elevator…