Texas Doctor Calls Asthma Drug a ‘Silver Bullet’ Against COVID

A Texas doctor sees huge success in using a drug meant to treat asthma against the novel coronavirus.

“Silver Bullet” for COVID Found?

West Texas Doctor Richard Bartlett recently had an interview with KWES-TV in Odessa, in which he described his discovery of budesonide as a COVID-19 treatment. Budesonide is an inhaled steroid, most commonly used to treat asthma, although Bartlett says it works marvels when it comes to speeding up recovery from COVID-19.
“It’s like putting out a fire at the base of the fire. I’m having patients recover so quick,” he said.

Bartlett has been an emergency room doctor for nearly 30 years, and said that he has been treating many COVID-19 patients, including high-risk ones such as elderly people or those with underlying health conditions like heart disease and cancer. The Texas doctor says that the drug stops the severe inflammation, which could lead to organ failure and death in such cases.

Bartlett prescribes his patients budesonide, which they inhale twice a day through a nebulizer, and he has previously said in an interview with Midland CBS affiliate KOSA that his survival rate so far is 100%.

The steroid has been on the market for 25 years, although it is not FDA approved as a COVID-19 treatment. Nevertheless, Bartlett feels it is the perfect medicine for the current situation, saying he has never seen a drug work so well for anything else.

Regional health officials, however, warned that despite Bartlett seeing success with utilizing the medicine in the fight against the coronavirus, there aren’t enough studies into it to back his claims – meaning it might not be a universal “silver bullet.”