Quebec researchers say they have found an effective drug to fight Covid-19

A double blind study with >4000 participants in multiple centres with a big differential result is very encouraging!

Interesting that it's an anti inflammatory. There have been a few other papers, both for covid 19 and generally, linking inflammation to poor outcomes.

Looks like it can have adverse side effects and it's very easy to overdose, leading to fatal organ failure. Also several factors, like existing medication or just consuming grapefruit juice, can affect concentration in the body. If my understanding is correct, it's to be administered early, after a positive PCR test. But only a fraction of the infections lead to hospitalization with serious symptoms. I don't know the numbers, but let's say, if 10 people die out of 10000 because of COVID, what's the point in taking the med if 10 people also might die because of it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicine

I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more news coverage, here is a pretty cheap off the shelf drug that improves Covid outcomes in a good sized double blind trial. Potential side effects are non trivial but come from misuse and I would expect most patients at grave risk from Covid would be under professional care (hopefully minimizing misuse).