For accurate information, go to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html). Listen to your state public health officials and local medical and public health officials and course, your personal medical providers. Even some governors have politicized the pandemic and are not putting safety procedures into place. Consult with your local health departments and the CDC website.
So let’s go back to Chloroquine. What is it and does it have any potential against COVID-19? During intensive research for new drugs to fight malaria during World War II, Chloroquine emerged as the champion. Compared to an earlier drug, quinine, chloroquine was tremendously less toxic with fewer side-effects and easily taken as a pill. It was also effective in protecting people from getting infected with malaria (malaria prophylaxis). However, chloroquine was almost too good to be true and it was used extensively to treat malaria as a single drug allowing the malaria parasite to develop wide-spread resistance to chloroquine all over the world.
It turns out that chloroquine is no “One trick pony”. This drug has many different actions and in addition to its effects against malaria and other parasites, chloroquine and its cousin, hydroxychloroquine have anti-inflammatory properties. Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) in particular was used for decades in treating rheumatoid arthritis and sometimes other inflammatory conditions like Lupus.
It is better tolerated than chloroquine. These anti-inflammatory effects of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine may be of benefit in patients with COVID-19. They might suppress production of biological compounds that drive the inflammatory process in the lungs that can lead to pneumonia and lung damage. In addition, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have some specific effects that block viruses through the stages involved in infecting cells and tissues. Hence, there are scientific reports showing activity of chloroquine inhibiting the SARS-2 coronavirus in the test-tube.