Rbarb100 made an excellent effort to help our mutual friend, and I assisted in that effort. I think it is difficult to parse out the causes of his death. He mentioned diabetes, overweight, previous kidney issues (and dialysis), a previous serious case of MRSA acquired in a hospital from a torn rotator cuff.

What Rbarb100 did not mention, but which I think also counts, is that his mother lived in the same building, and she died 3 days before our friend went into the hospital of unrelated causes.

I wish we had gotten him the medicine sooner. I am sure the mild-to-moderate numbers will look much better than the serious cases numbers. Neither of us was quite read his condition as it was developing.

Dr. Pourhassan and the Cytodyn team were very helpful. When the drug is everywhere and doctors are properly instructed when to give the drug, it will make an enormous difference in patient health. He might have gotten the drug when he first got oxygen, and not when he was finally put on a ventilator. This might have been as much as two weeks earlier. We won't have to write to make a case to the doctors to pursue the drug, and wait for the drug, and wait for the doctors to read instructions, and on and on. As it was, he got the drug 26 days after he entered the hospital.

And Rbarb100 is very much correct. These things are not just numbers - our mutual friend was an inspiring and cheery presence in our tango community. I can attest to that.

Given the wonderful safety profile of the drug, I wonder if the FDA shouldn't have different rules for such drugs.