A trop­i­cal dis­ease doc­tor turns his sights on the coro­n­avirus

If all goes well, hun­dreds of health­care work­ers across the coun­try will soon get a pack­age at their door con­tain­ing a pack­et of 65-year-old pills and a set of in­struc­tions.

The pills con­tain ei­ther an an­ti-malar­i­al med­ica­tion called hy­drox­y­chloro­quine or place­bo, and the in­struc­tions con­tain the pro­to­col for the Unit­ed States’ fourth coro­n­avirus clin­i­cal tri­al. The brain child of a trop­i­cal dis­ease re­searcher well ac­quaint­ed with malar­ia, the study could soon tell us if there’s a way to help pro­tect those most ex­posed to the virus from falling ill.

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