Not bad: Drug for Alcoholism may stop a third of Covid infections, some deaths too

Just another cheap, safe and long-used-drug for our Health Ministers to ignore

A new study looked at 944,000 US Veterans who had a Covid test sometime. Of those, 2,200 were alcoholics who were also prescribed disulfiram. We might expect alcoholics to crash and burn against Covid, but amongst them, strangely, infections were lower than in the non-alcoholics — 34% lower. And there were no deaths from Covid in the 188 either. Sadly the death rate in infected vets who caught Covid, but weren’t using disulfiram, was 3%.

It’s only a very odd observational study, not a randomized one. The mechanism isn’t known for sure, but there are suggestions the drug interferes with an enzyme the virus needs and may reduce hyperinflammation. Haven’t we heard that before?

Ivermectin appears to be better, but for people without access to it, at least there is the option to become an alcoholic. Thinking about the corruption at the FDA or the TGA will help. And if you are already an alcoholic, best get treatment now before they ban it.

It obviously needs a proper study. Bear in mind there were only 188 alcoholic veterans who caught Covid. But still, none of them died, and we’d expect 5 or 6 deaths in a group of 188 non-alcoholic vets.

Wonder what the drug might achieve in a non-alcoholic test group?

The message here is that we are living in a sea of antivirals, but our funding system, the bureaucracy, and our deep medical swamp are getting in the way.

Study: Drug used for alcoholism treatment may fight severe COVID-19

By HealthDay News

The investigators found that people taking disulfiram, known as Antabuse, for alcoholism had a lower risk of infection with COVID-19 and were less likely to die from the coronavirus…

Listen to the sweet naivete of a Professor:

“This is a great candidate for a repurposed drug. It could easily be made available worldwide if we can prove it has a positive effect on patients with COVID-19,” said Chris Sander, a professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School.

They noted that disulfiram has been prescribed for more than 60 years as a treatment for alcoholism, and that it’s safe, inexpensive, familiar to physicians, and widely used in many countries.

And he thinks those are good selling points. If only this drug were $3,000 a dose, barely useful and fully patented.

REFERENCE

Fillmore N, Bell S, Shen C, Nguyen V, La J, Dubreuil M, et al. (2021) Disulfiram use is associated with lower risk of COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study. PLoS ONE 16(10): e0259061. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259061

9.6 out of 10 based on 48 ratings

30 comments to Not bad: Drug for Alcoholism may stop a third of Covid infections, some deaths too

  • #
    Gerry

    It’s safe if you don’t drink alcohol….

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  • #
    Fran

    There are big differences in alcoholics who take disulfiram and those who do not. It produces acute effects of alcohol overdose by preventing the metabolism of acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of alcohol – flushing, nausea, palpitations. Those who use it will be the most responsible and organized. Thus they will also tend to do other things that would make them healthier. Nevertheless the data are interesting.

    Interesting the number of drugs for which we only know about the primary effect they were licensed for.

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  • #
    LloydWW

    Our health regulatory system depends on the goodwill of the senior leadership of the regulatory agencies. I fear our current model has been shown to be susceptible to corruption.

    It should be noted that our National health regulatory system came into being in the wake of the Jayant Patel affair with the laudable aim of preventing similar regulatory lapses. It was supposed to run more efficiently and with less expense but it is debatable whether those aims have been achieved.

    I think the concentration of regulatory power has lead to a degree of groupthink in an organisation which, at least to my mind, appears to be engaged in an ever expanding process of mission creep and micromanagement. As a result, dissent on the issue of Covid management appears to be stifled on pain of the loss of registration for those individuals who dare to publicly question its direction.

    All in the name of maintaining public safety.

    It’s quite Orwellian and as someone who once had a high degree of respect for our system of health regulation, well, my disappointment is profound and akin to a loss of faith with all that entails.

    I can only hope the suppression of alternative pathways to managing Covid will one day be lifted and I pray that those who are responsible will have sufficient grace and introspection to resign.

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  • #
    Broadie

    Were the drinkers also smokers?
    Were they like most Alcoholics and avoid hospitals?
    Was the control group Alcoholics not taking Antabuse?

    My memory of the initial outbreak was smokers survived in the countries affected in the Northern Hemisphere winter.

    The problem with these what I understand are metadata studies is you are looking at drawing a conclusion on a disease that is %99 asymptomatic, using a test that will find a molecule of something in anything and with deaths recorded by a broad change to the reporting system. As Sucharit Bhakdi said from the outset, you will not have a sample size big enough to prove anything.

    If you want to see cause and effect on the big screen go to the John Hopkins Dashboard Look at the right hand side with Laos or Cambodia selected. These are rice growing countries who regularly take anti parasitics. Look what happens when they start vaccinations. H/T to the ‘maps daddy’ iamjohncullen. John has identified the flu wasn’t fixed by masking and lockdowns as claimed by Fauci. If you look at the Pneumonia & Influenza deaths recorded on death certifcates as reported by the CDC Wonder database there was a massive P&I death count.

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  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Since alcohol use by veterans was mentioned there’s a related situation that was publicised some time ago; it gave an insight into the looseness of government oversight with respect to pharmaceuticals.

    The general outline was that U.S. troops in combat situations were routinely given antidepressants, SSRIs, to help deal with the trauma faced.

    Not to be outdone, I understand that the Russian pilots flying earlier supersonic warplanes would drink significant quantities of Vodka before getting aboard.

    I can understand the Vodka, but the antidepressant thing smacks of tokenism and the sort of product boosting that exists now with CV19 tests and Vaxxes.

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    • #
      Bozotheclown

      I was onto the possible BS factor when I read:

      944,000 US Veterans ………. Of those, 2,200 were alcoholics.

      I know what the modern definition of “alcoholic” is. 2%? of veterans? Righto? WRONG!

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    • #
      Bruce

      Furthermore, some “anti-depressants” seem to have a flip side; they seem to randomly induce sustained outbreaks of uncontrollable rage and violence. Great for the “shrink” business, not so great for others.

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  • #
    KP

    “All in the name of maintaining public safety.”

    There’s a queue of the Mother Grundys who try to run our lives for us to have this adopted world-wide! Get rid of the demon alcohol once and for all, stop all these people having fun that leads to so many of society’s problems, and cure Covid all at once! The traffic accidents, the fights and stabbings, the wife abuse, the health problems of alcoholics, the financial ruin…

    I’d give it several hundred times the chances of Ivermectin in being adopted!

    10

  • #
    Forrest Gardener

    A good idea is not a good idea until the right person has had the good idea.

    So who exactly needs to be inspired?

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    • #

      We need to reach enough people so that some celebrities or politicians are brave enough to speak up.

      That’s what happened in Indonesia. Once enough high ranking people called for Ivermectin, it was approved.

      Strategically, we need to be serious about our lines of communication. At the moment the corruption is so deeply embedded the media and medical associations are nearly worthless, or worse, working for the enemy.

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  • #
    Don B

    “Ivermectin appears to be better…”

    Ivermectin has six different mechanisms for fighting Covid, while the new Pfizer and Merck anti-viral pills are one trick ponies.

    https://rclutz.com/2021/11/27/ivm-beats-pfizer-and-merck-one-trick-pony-pills/

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  • #

    Just looking this up I come across Disulfiram as being the drug name. I don’t think this is a case of being able to choose ph or f. Also there is an i in it.

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    • #
      Bozotheclown

      Hey Jo! Here is your spell checker: Gee

      Well I think that is what it was doing.

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      • #
        Broadie

        Bit like our elected representatives. Getting stuck into the core issues.

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      • #

        I read the OP, found it interesting and went off to find out more about it. In the process I noted the spelling and reported this back as a courtesy.

        Here’s the thing Bozo. Why didn’t anyone else report this? Did no one else seek extra information or were they just too lazy to report the error?

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  • #
    Analitik

    Ivermectin appears to be better, but for people without access to it, at least there is the option to become an alcoholic.

    Another alternative is to get diagnosed for depression so your doctor can prescribe fluvoxamine which is hugely effective as an early treatment drug

    8. The evidence is solid. There are 4 outpatient studies that have been done (2 at WashU (see Phase 2 trial results published in JAMA), one in Berkeley, CA by David Seftel, one in Brazil published in the Lancet, and one in-patient study done in Croatia. Three of the four outpatient trials have been reported out: all were successful. The WashU Phase 3 study hasn’t been disclosed yet, but they had compliance problems with their patients this time around (phase 2 was local so the patients got the drug early and also were very compliant and the placebo group was truly taking nothing). There were no studies reported out so far where fluvoxamine made things worse or neutral. All the supporting observational studies were positive as well.

    https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/fluvoxamine-for-covid-what-you-need

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  • #
    BriantheEngineer

    Can it be used by horses???!!!

    50

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    If a safe and 100% effective drug for old age were invented our Therapootic Drudge Administration would only allow it for the ‘fully’ vaxxed.

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  • #
    RoHa

    Will Medicare pay for the necessary booze so that I can become an alcoholic and get prescribed disulfiram if I catch Covid?

    50

  • #
    Will

    When a well-known company replaced its alcohol-based mouth wash with a non-alcohol over some ridiculous study that ignored millennia of alcohol consumption and abuse (it was the usual woeful excuse: some mice given ethanol developed cancer), I ROFL. As the efficacy and their sales plummeted it is now available once again and with my current gingivitis I am thankful that some sanity is restored.

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  • #
    Gerry,+England

    And when it comes to vaccine related heart problems, last night in the English Premier League there were 6 games – all on Amazon Prime. Tuning in to watch one there was news that the players were off in one game while a fan was given urgent medical treatment. There have been a number of these recently including another televised match. You can imagine my shock at then finding a second game was now on hold while a fan having a cardiac arrest was attended too. Two games out of just six!

    In other news it seems that a research institute is withholding information on heart problems and vaccines for fear of losing Big Pharma funding, while one study has been published. Die Berliner Zeitung commented on 24 incidents related to players, coaches and officials in the last few months with 5 fatalities. There is some suggestion that catching Covid can also cause heart problems but something is going on.

    Just for background, the UK has mostly used the AZ jab but is no on the booster 3rd jab merrygoround where as far as I know only the mRna vaxes are being offered.

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