For a year and a half, we have endured lockdowns, social distancing, mask mandates, travel bans, imprisonment (quarantines), job losses, business closures, increased suicide rates, increased domestic abuse, delays in receiving medical treatment, and much more.

All of this is on the basis that there was no cure for the current pandemic.

Yet from the very beginning, there have been several claimed cures. One of these treatments is vitamin C [VC]. As early as March 2020, Dr Cheng outlined the clinical rationale for this treatment, and referred to the experience already had in China:

High-dose intravenous VC [HDIVC] has also been successfully used in the treatment of 50 moderate to severe COVID-19 patients in China. The doses used varied between 10 g and 20 g per day, given over a period of 8-10 h. Additional VC bolus may be required among patients in critical conditions. The oxygenation index was improving in real time and all the patients eventually cured and were discharged.

So during worst days of the pandemic, the patients in this study, some of whom were in a critical condition, had a 100% survival rate using a protocol including HDIVC. The cohort was small, nonetheless, the results were important. This should have been front page news.

In March 2020, the Expert Group on Clinical Treatment of COVID-19 in Shanghai published its recommendations for treatment, including that:

High doses of vitamin C are intravenously injected 100 to 200 mg/kg per day.

Critics observe that the HDIVC was only one part of the therapy given / recommended in the above. That's true, though the results in the initial study still demand attention.

Another Chinese study was conducted in Wuhan from mid-February to the end of March 2020, to determine the specific role of HDIVC, by giving one group of patients standard care only, and the other, standard care plus HDIVC.