18/01/2021
A simple inexpensive Vitamin more than half's Covid 19 mortality!!
The first randomised placebo-controlled trial of vitamin C on COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilators in a group of Wuhan hospitals, reports 80 per cent less mortality in the most critically ill who were given vitamin C, compared to placebo.
Zhiyong Peng, who is Professor and Chair of Critical Care Medicine from the Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, says “We undertook this study because we had learnt that a high dose of vitamin C was effective against ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) and other types of acute lung injury.
“At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan we treated critically ill COVID-19 patients with intravenous vitamin C (12 grams every 12 hours - a total 24 grams per day) versus placebo (sterile water) as part of a pilot-RCT at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.
“The mortality rate was half - 22% (6 out of 27) in the vitamin C group and 52% (11 out of 29) in the placebo. This difference was not statistically significant because of the small number but, in the most critically ill (SOFA>3) the difference in hospital mortality at 28 days was even bigger, with 80% less mortality in the vitamin C group, which was statistically significant.”
Also, those on the vitamin C treatment had a steady improvement in lung function, and a decrease in inflammation, while lung function got worse in the placebo group.
The irony is that, while they needed 140 patients to make the trial’s effects undisputable, they ran out of patients in Wuhan within three months.
According to Peng “Unfortunately, our trial is underpowered because we ran out of critical COVID-19 patients. In fact, we have had none since May.”
