Great point (raised in article) but that’s a third of patients...

Great point (raised in article) but that’s a third of patients saved at very little additional cost. Governments and hospitals will run at this.

“Clearly, now steroids are the standard of care,” said Dr. Howard C. Bauchner, the editor-in-chief of JAMA, which published five papers about the treatment.Corticosteroids should now be the first-line treatment for critically ill patients, the authors said.Steroids like dexamethasone, hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone are often used by doctors to tamp down the body’s immune system, alleviating inflammation, swelling and pain. Many Covid-19 patients die not of the virus, but of the body’s overreaction to the infection.Steroids can have harmful side effects, especially in elderly patients, who make up the majority of very ill coronavirus patients. The drugs may leave patients vulnerable to other infections, may raise blood glucose levels, and may cause confusion and delirium.In the clinical trials, only the sickest patients were treated with steroids, and it is not certain that those who are less ill will benefit or be harmed. The optimal doses and duration of treatment also need to be identified.But over all, the scientists said, the new studies appeared to confirm the promise of this class of drugs for patients severely ill with Covid-19.’