Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - What I am doing for the upcoming COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
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Old 03-03-2020, 12:07 PM
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blueash blueash is offline
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The OP did not write his posting. He is not Dr Robb, if that isn't obvious. Dr. Robb wrote an email to his own family not intended for public dissemination. But that's not how social media works and someone posted it. Snopes.com has a discussion of the controversial part of the email regarding zinc. Dr Robb in his reply to snopes clarified that section.

Quote:
In my experience as a virologist and pathologist, zinc will inhibit the replication of many viruses, including coronaviruses. I expect COVID-19 [the disease caused by the novel coronavirus] will be inhibited similarly, but I have no direct experimental support for this claim. I must add, however, that using zinc lozenges as directed by the manufacturer is no guarantee against being infected by the virus, even if it inhibits the viral replication in the nasopharynx.
You will find that there are conflicting data on clinical efficacy of zinc lozenges in respiratory viruses. Keep in mind that the overwhelming number of colds are not caused by coronavirus but rather by rhinovirus. I couldn't find any data looking at coronavirus respiratory illness and zinc lozenges. Note that Dr Robb wrote "IF it inhibits" rather than "even though it inhibits" which to my reading means he has no idea if coronavirus is at all sensitive to zinc lozenges in sick patients.
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