Hydroxychloroquine appears to assist "some" severe COVID-19 patients by DOWNREGULATING THE BODY'S IMMUNE RESPONSES. Most COVID-19 deaths are caused by inflammation of the inner linings of the lungs. There are 2 and possibly 3 stages to the inflammation process.
Initial lung inflammation is caused by the body's immune response to the presence of the virus and would not be dissimilar to any other viral pneumonia. Most reasonably healthy people survive this experience and fully recover if it goes no further.
To deflect COVID-19 at this phase of the illness a person needs to have their immune system firing on all cylinders.
If the virus lingers in the lungs, a secondary immune response within the body can be triggered. The virus down regulates some cell to cell signalling receptors and possibly up regulates others. The exact cause/effect matrix isn't completely known but researchers have been focussing on a protein called Il6. There are several other proteins involved in the immune system's over-response (called a cytokine storm) which leads to further inflammation and possibly death.
By the time a patient is likely to suffer the potentially lethal cytokine storm the virus itself may be largely spent. Hydroxychloroquine treatments for these patients alone may logically be of some benefit by downregulating the immune system's over response. A cytokine storm also induces physical stress and remodelling (e.g. scarring) which in turn triggers proteins that are more usually associated with inflammatory responses. The lungs will be further inflamed, fill with fluid and cease to function.
Simplified warning for dumbass Trump followers:
This quinine sh#t will leave you wide open to COVID. You will be doomed if you take it too soon.
