The Covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of its impact on the world. While other pandemics have been more deadly, such as the plague, cholera and the 1918 Spanish flu, they occurred before the modern era of antimicrobials. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors and scientists have been looking hard for drugs which can be used to treat and prevent Sars-CoV-2 infection. Public health interventions such as quarantine and contact tracing were and still are widely used to prevent infection. However, once infection occurs, there is only supportive care. This often means time in an intensive care unit (ICU) with the use of oxygen and other standard medical treatments, but no specific targeted options against either the virus or the host immune response. With the development of penicillin and other antibiotics for bacterial infections, many previously deadly infectious diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis are no longer as deadly, and neither are malaria and tuberculosis. Highly active antiviral agents were also developed for the human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C. When developing new virus-specific drugs from scratch, it can take years (probably about 10 to...

The Covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of its impact on the world. While other pandemics have been more deadly, such as the plague, cholera and the 1918 Spanish flu, they occurred before the modern era of antimicrobials. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors and scientists have been looking hard for drugs which can be used to treat and prevent Sars-CoV-2 infection. Public health interventions such as quarantine and contact tracing were and still are widely used to prevent infection. However, once infection occurs, there is only supportive care. This often means time in an intensive care unit (ICU) with the use of oxygen and other standard medical treatments, but no specific targeted options against either the virus or the host immune response. With the development of penicillin and other antibiotics for bacterial infections, many previously deadly infectious diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis are no longer as deadly, and neither are malaria and tuberculosis. Highly active antiviral agents were also developed for the human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C. When developing new virus-specific drugs from scratch, it can take years (probably about 10 to...