Seattle doctor developing treatment for sickest COVID-19 patients

SEATTLE — The fatality rate for COVID-19 victims on ventilators has been 50% or higher.

So, at Atossa Therapeutics in Seattle, Dr. Steven Quay is getting a drug combination ready for a clinical trial in a hard-hit hospital back east.

“There's a side port on the ventilator where you can put medication for these patients … basically they can breathe a mist while they are on the ventilator and the goal is to get them off the ventilator and once you are off the ventilator you'll have an improved clinical course.

Quay is CEO of Seattle's Atossa Therapeutics. He's says he's invented seven FDA approved drugs for other illnesses.

Called H-NAC, the drug would put a coating over the parts of the virus that help them replicate so quickly, rendering it ineffective, similar to what a vaccine does.

“We want to teach the immune system to coat the virus with antibodies, I'm coating the virus … with these two already FDA approved drugs,” he said.

Protestors are demanding Inslee reopen the economy now. But Dr. Quay says we probably need another two weeks at least to prove it can be reopened without allowing the virus to come back.

Residential Construction, and auto sales are at the top of the list for reopening in plans being developed by both parties in the Legislature.

But most leaders are not pressuring Inslee to open things before his stay at home order expires on May 4.

“We’re not suggesting that the governor immediately open all of those tomorrow but those are ones where we should put protocols in place and be ready to open the moment we see the kinds of trends with the virus that make it safe,” said Rep. Larry Springer - (D) Kirkland.

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