https://www.cbs7.com/2020/06/19/west-texas-doctor-claims-to-have-silver-bullet-for-covid-19/

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ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - A West Texas Doctor claims he's found the "silver bullet" for COVID-19, but the treatment is not currently approved by the FDA.

Dr. Richard Bartlett works at various clinics around West Texas, and says he's found a successful treatment for the coronavirus.

"The treatment plan is inhaled, generic budesonide," Bartlett said. "Using some generic antibiotics to protect from a secondary bacterial infection. Using zinc, which interferes with virus replication. It's common sense. It's intuitive."

Budesonide is a steroid, that can be inhaled directly to the lungs using a nebulizer.

The drug has been used for decades to treat asthma and is approved by the FDA. However using it to treat COVID-19 is not.

"I am not aware of any doctors anywhere that are using this specifically for COVID-19, yet," Bartlett said.

Bartlett said he treats people as soon as they show symptoms.

"Early treatment is better with this disease," he said. "And I'm having a 100% survival rate. I don't even know how many I've treated...dozens. I have 14 that I'm treating right now."

Bartlett said that patients tell him they feel immediate relief.

CBS7 asked local health authorities about Bartlett's claims.

"When we go look at a study," Odessa Regional Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Rohith Saravanan said, "If they say 'oh five cases, all solved. Magic pill. Silver bullet', well that's not how science works. You take thousands and thousands of patients across multiple countries, multiple sites, you blind them, you control certain people, certain treatments. And then you compare the groups. It's not that he's doing something wrong. He's sharing what he found could be useful to the scientific community."

Bartlett said he's currently writing a paper to submit to medical journals.

Additionally, he said the National Institute of Health, as well as the countries of France and Spain will be looking into inhaled budesonide treatments.

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I got sent this by a family member and I'm not sure what to think. I figured I would post here to see what some health professionals say.

Both my daughter and grandson were given this treatment. Within 24 hours their symptoms improved.

texan12 said:

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If not approved by the FDA, how can it be used as treatment?

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Off label prescription by individual doctors.

Common medication used for asthma or viral wheezing especially in infants. Worth studying and trying it is safe.

He loses a little credibility for me when he says masks and distancing don't work at all, saying that is what they tried in Italy and France where they had 30k fatalities. The he holds up Taiwan and Singapore as the model for how to treat COVID. Guess what, mask adoption in Taiwan and Singapore is a heck of a lot higher than Europe.

Inhaled steroid, like dexamethasone (given IV). Given the dexamethasone data it is not surprising.

wessimo said:

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He loses a little credibility for me when he says masks and distancing don't work at all, saying that is what they tried in Italy and France where they had 30k fatalities. The he holds up Taiwan and Singapore as the model for how to treat COVID. Guess what, mask adoption in Taiwan and Singapore is a heck of a lot higher than Europe.

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I think he is trying to say that the Budesonide use is the reason Taiwan, Singapore and Japan have low death rates. He's talking treatments. You are assuming that the masks are the reasons for low death rates, which could be true, but not enough evidence and study done to be able to say conclusively yet. Masks are not the treatment, but are a prevention. Plus he is saying that the way that they are trying to test Budesonide is faulty and that they want to stress the use of masks over this as a treatment.

wessimo said:

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Then he could have just said they use this drug in Taiwan but not in Italy and that is why there was a different outcome. Why even bring masks into it?

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He obviously doesn't think masks work and thinks a better focus on treatment is the better play. He is arguing that certain groups are sabotaging the testing efforts of the steroid in question, potentially with an agenda to hinder its use until a vaccine might be created. He's saying that in Taiwan, people are being saved by this treatment and I guess insinuating they don't really need masks? Not sure about that but he thinks the masks are being used here to get us to focus on prevention as opposed to treatment. Maybe pharmaceuticals companies and their lobbyists are pushing this as they won't make money off this treatment.

This guy's evidence, as stated over and over for 30 minutes, is the fact that Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, etc. are all using nebulizer steroids and that is THE reason why they have such a low number of deaths.

This is complete BS. These countries have low numbers of deaths because they have had low number of infections. Taiwan has had ~450 confirmed cases total, 7 deaths, which is still a 1.5% death rate. Look at the numbers yourself.

These countries have done well because of the early preventative measures they put in place. Culturally speaking, the average citizen takes epidemics much more seriously since they have had to deal with SARS virus epidemics in the past much more so than the west has. The Japanese began wearing face masks during the 1919 Spanish Flu and never really stopped - it's sort of been culturally expected for a person who has cold/flu symptoms to wear a mask ever since.

This man is a patriot for attempting to solve our information problem.