Killed by the coronavirus
Killed by the coronavirusצילום: ISTOCK

The COVID-19 delta variant is threatening a worldwide catastrophe.

When policy makers ask physicians if there is a treatment available which can effectively address the challenge presented by the huge number of people hospitalized with this variant their answer is that there is no “effective” treatment.

The problem is that the policy makers apply a layman’s understanding of the term “effective”.

When physicians says a treatment is “effective” they mean that double blind studies have established that a placebo administered in a similar fashion doesn’t have the same success.

This is a testing process which can take a considerable amount of time and possibly even raise ethical issues during a pandemic.

When laymen say a treatment is “effective” they mean that patients who receive the treatment respond favorably.

So when policy makers hear doctors say that it is not known yet if a given treatment is “effective” they think that means that the treatment might not necessarily help patients.

This when the policy makers should be asking the doctors:

“I don’t really care if the treatment is no better than a placebo – just tell me two things:

#1. Is it safe to administer?

#2. If it is administered can I expect a significantly positive result REGARDLESS OF THE REASON?

But they apparently do not ask these questions.

This is the tragedy of the failure to roll out the Israeli EXO-CD24 for immediate worldwide distribution

The drug was successfully tested both in Israel and in larger follow up testing in Greece.

Read here for a Hebrew article about the test results.

There seems to be no question that the treatment is both safe and what a layman would term "effective".

But the world waits for double blind testing so that physicians will also call it "effective."

It is an idea drug: as the inventor, Prof. Nadir Arber of Ichilov Hospital notes, it "can be produced quickly and efficiently and at a very low cost in every pharmaceutical facility in the country, and in a short time globally.”

And in sharp contrast to the vaccinations, it does not have challenging storage requirements.

And since It is inhaled rather than injected, administration of the medication is considerably less demanding for skilled staff.

This treatment is ideal for both the "first world" and "third world".

EXO-CD24 won't stop people from being infected by COVID-19. But it may stop them from dying. And it will make it possible for most of them to be discharged in a matter of days so that they don't overwhelm the hospitals.

Will decision makers finally "think out of the box" built by the medical definition of "effective"?

Dr. Aaron Lerner and his late father Dr. Joseph Lerner founded the Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA) government accredited news organization in 1992,which provides an ongoing analysis of developments in Arab-Israeli relations.