That is sad. It is a deadly disease, but patients are unlucky first to catch it and then to die of it. I hope he took precautions to minimise his risk, at least. It's sad when folks followed the president's initial advice that the government had everything under control, even as the medical advice was that things looked grim.
Sounds like your friend's doctor isn't convinced by the anecdotes or thinks it is unethical to experiment on dying patients simply because a president speculates about cures.
Where there are doctors developing hypotheses and publishing their initial findings, it's more interesting, such as your plus-zinc chappie.
There appear to be other drugs in the same place as the chloroquines. My own expertise is insufficient to make a judgement about their efficacy. As a person who doesn't do medical research, I value the process and the people that produce treatments. Where there are individual patients involved, I think it is best to leave clinical judgements to doctors, in conversation with each of them. If I was in your friend's position, I'd likely have an opinion to express to my doctor. Conversations like this one are harmless enough because we are curious and because we have no influence - in the ICU I don't know how I would respond to a doctor's treatment ideas. I'd want him/her to do everything he/she could based on what he/she knew about the drug and about me. I hope I wouldn't set my expertise against his/hers. And if what he/she did failed to work, I hope I (posthumously) and my friends wouldn't blame him/her.
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