Study: 4 drugs have little to no effect on COVID-19

COVID-19 NEWS IN BRIEF

Study: 4 drugs have little to no effect on COVID-19

GENEVA - The world's largest randomized trial of COVID-19 treatments found "conclusive evidence" that remdesivir, a drug used to treat President Donald Trump when he fell ill, has little or no effect on severe cases, the U.N. health agency said Friday.

The World Health Organization announced the long-awaited results of a six-month trial that endeavored to see if existing drugs might have an effect on the coronavirus.

The study, which was not peer-reviewed, found that four treatments tested - remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ ritonavir and interferon - had "little or no effect" on whether or not patients died within about a month or whether hospitalized patients recovered.

Most of those had already been ruled out. But remdesivir, an antiviral, has been classified as standard-of-care in the United States, and it has been approved for use against COVID-19 in the United Kingdom and European Union. Supplies of the drug have been limited, and the European Medicines Agency is now reviewing whether remdesivir is causing kidney problems as reported by some patients.

The results of the global trial are in sharp contrast to a large study in the United States, which found remdesivir shortened the time to recovery by about five days on average.

Pfizer: Mid-November earliest it can seek approval for vaccine

NEW YORK - Pfizer cannot request emergency authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine before the third week of November - and that's if everything goes well, the company's CEO announced Friday.

Despite President Donald Trump's repeated promises of a vaccine before Election Day, scientists have been cautioning that it's unlikely data showing a leading shot actually works would come until November or December.

Another leading U.S. contender, Moderna, previously announced the earliest it could seek authorization of its own vaccine would be Nov. 25.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has long said it's possible testing might reveal by the end of October if his company's vaccine actually protects against the coronavirus. But in Friday's announcement, he made clear that effectiveness is only part of the equation.

The vaccine also must be proven safe. And to qualify for an "emergency use authorization," any COVID-19 vaccine must track at least half the participants in large-scale studies for two months after their second dose, the time period in which side effects are likely to appear.

Poll: Americans critical of Trump's handling of virus

Less than three weeks from Election Day, majorities of Americans are highly critical of President Donald Trump's handling of both the coronavirus pandemic and his own illness, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The survey also shows that few Americans have high levels of trust in the information the White House has released about Trump's health. Initial accounts of the president's condition were murky and contradictory, and the White House is still refusing to say when the president last tested negative for COVID-19 before his infection became public.

Trump's illness and hospitalization has refocused the critical final stretch of the presidential campaign on the pandemic, which has killed more than 216,000 people in the United States this year. Democratic challenger Joe Biden has sought to make the election a referendum on the Republican president's handling of the virus, arguing that Trump has mismanaged the pandemic and cost Americans lives.

The AP-NORC poll suggests many Americans agree with that sentiment, with 65 percent saying Trump has not taken the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. seriously enough. The poll, which was taken a week after Trump disclosed his own COVID-19 diagnosis, also shows that 54 percent of Americans disapprove with how the White House handled the episode.