When Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, described the results of a remdesivir study a couple of weeks ago, he was cautious in characterizing how the experimental Gilead Sciences drug helped combat Covid-19.
Patients given the intravenous medicine recovered faster than those on a placebo by 31%, or four days, Fauci said, conceding the result was not a “knockout.” Nonetheless, he insisted in his trademark keep-it-simple-demeanor, that the data showed “remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect…. This has proven that a drug can block this virus.”
By and large, this was good news, but there was a caveat — the data were based only on a preliminary analysis. Rather than release all the data, the National Institutes of Health, which sponsored the study, issued a press release saying a forthcoming report would have “more comprehensive data.”
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