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A cheap, common steroid improves survival rates for COVID-19 patients on ventilators, according to a press release from the research team. The drug, called dexamethasone, reduced deaths by one-third in patients on ventilators, and by one-fifth in patients who needed supplemental oxygen, according to the team. It did not help patients who were able to breathe on their own.
Steroids like dexamethasone blunt inflammation in the body. Researchers think that some patients with severe cases of COVID-19 have dangerously high levels of inflammation as part of an overactive immune response to the virus and that calming that down with an anti-inflammatory like dexamethasone could help ease their symptoms. That’s also why people shouldn’t take…