Fox News host suggests Viagra is COVID-19 cure

Fox host, Trump supporter and right wing conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson suggests Viagra could be a Covid-19 cure in a live broadcast. Carlson who is known to support many of Trump’s debunked suggestions was discussing the case of a British nurse who has claimed Covid-19 patients have been saved with a cocktail that includes the ‘blue tablet’.
Carlson, who has yet to declare whether he has been vaccinated or not, has been a sceptic throughout the pandemic and has used every opportunity to discredit health authorities.
The nurse, Monica Almeida, 37, was induced into a coma due to severe symptoms after contracting the virus. Her parents were reportedly told they should fly from their home in Portugal over to England to say their goodbyes.
She claims that with her prognosis bleak, she was given an experimental regimen that included Viagra, which stops the body from making an enzyme that normally breaks down nitric oxide, causing the blood vessels in a penis to dilate.
Viagra is however far from a proven treatment in the fight against the virus, with no convincing evidence available that suggest it would have any benefit at all.
Despite this, Carlson who was accompanied on the show by Marc Siegel, the broadcaster’s go-to medical contributor, said: “Well, amazingly, there appear to be growing connections between Viagra and treatment for the coronavirus. Who though that Viagra would save us from the pandemic?”
Siegel when questioned about the role the medication played in Almeida’s recovery, he Siegel cited a Chilean study on the use of Viagra in COVID-19 cases, as well as other studies on the use of nitric oxide.
He went on to say: “So, I think this is the beginning of something and other studies are going on, and I think this is a potential treatment,” adding: “I’m getting ready to try it out.”
The study quoted by Siegel, which was published in Critical Care, was conducted at the Hospital Naval Almirante Nef and Universidad Andres Bello. The study looked at 40 patients diagnosed with coronavirus and who were experiencing abnormalities in the blood flow to their lungs. Half were given Viagra, while the other half received a placebo.
Thirty-three patients were men, and researchers found no real significant differences between the two groups. Other than those taking Viagra had, on average, a shorter stay in hospital, nine versus 12 days respectively.
Researchers say the sample is too small to draw any inferences, with one saying in medical science ‘size does matter’. The National Institutes of Health, a federal medical research agency, recommends “against the routine use of inhaled nitric oxide whilst researchers in the UK have stressed that “further trials” must be done before it is recommended as a therapeutic option.
This is not the first time that Carlson, who suggests Viagra is a possible cure for Covid-19, has made recommendations not based in science and no doubt it won’t be his last. After all he has made a career out of spinning half-truths.

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