Sometime in mid-January, the staff at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv started to realize that they were on to something. A drug developed by Dr. Nadir Arber, head of the hospital’s Integrated Center for Cancer Prevention, really did seem to have a dramatic effect on patients most severely impacted by the coronavirus. It actually cured them, and quickly too.
One of the people now recovering as a result of the experimental drug is a woman from Tel Aviv. She told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that she received the first coronavirus vaccine shot in December, but shortly after she started to feel ill. According to her, she was infected by her husband, who was himself infected during an open-air prayer service. Her health deteriorated rapidly, and she was admitted to Ichilov. She already suffered from asthma, so by the time she was moved to the intensive care unit, she was already in critical condition. The hospital then offered her family a chance to participate in a study involving an experimental drug, administered by an inhaler, identical to the one used by asthma patients. She said that shorly after she started feeling much better and was sent home three weeks later. While she still requires oxygen, the speed of her overall recovery has been remarkable.