"Remdesivir has a clear and significant positive effect on reducing the time it takes to heal," Fauci told reporters at the White House Oval Office. "It's a drug that can block this virus."
On February 21 at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an international trial of clinical evidence on the placebo effect began on hundreds of patients with coronavirus hospitalized, Mr Fauci said. Patients treated with Remdesivir needed 11 days to recover compared to the 15 days needed for placebo patients.
"Whenever there is clear evidence that a drug works, we have an ethical obligation to immediately tell people who are in the group of those treated with placebo that they can have access. Other tests that are already being performed with them have a new standard of care ", said Mr. Fauci to the journalists.
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug produced by the American company Gilead Sciences, is an intravenous drug that interferes with an enzyme that reproduces viral genetic material. In animal tests performed against SARS and MERS, diseases caused by similar coronaviruses, Remdesivir has helped prevent infection and reduce the severity of symptoms. But the drug has not been approved for use by any country in the world. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue an authorization on Wednesday for its urgent use in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Another study with Remdesivir did not come to a positive conclusion, a question that journalists asked Mr. Fauci.
"It's a flawed study," Mr Fauci said of the study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, according to which Remdesivir was ineffective in treating COVID-19 patients. "It's not an adequate study," he said. COVID-19 has so far caused the deaths of more than 226,000 people worldwide, of whom over 60,000 in the United States. The number of people infected in the United States exceeds one million, more than in any other country in the world. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump hinted that the figure was "an indication of the country's superior testing capabilities."
"To think that the United States has more cases than China does anyone really believe that ?!" added Mr. Trump. He again blamed China, the country where the first case of coronavirus was reported, and the World Health Organization, linked to pandemics.
"They misinformed us," Mr Trump told the WHO, calling it "an instrument of China."
"They (China) can't say hello about what happened and the WHO is basically doing that," Mr Trump told reporters. "This creates problems for us," he added.
Earlier this month, the president cut US funding for the organization, which is estimated at $ 400 million to $ 500 million each year. The WHO says it is working with its partners to close the financial gap created by the Trump administration's decision. The United States is the largest donor to the WHO. "We can give that (money) to the most valuable groups. We will make a decision in the near future ", said President Trump.
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