My hypothesis is that safe, repurposed antimicrobials are a place to look in case the known treatments fail. See this video for a deep dive into the theory as to why antimicrobials would work and what the science from animal models is suggesting to us. See the protocol video for ideas regarding safe antimicrobials.
Evidence for
Survey data shows that 5 of the top 6 treatments are treatments with known antimicrobial properties:
Anecdotally, I’ve found that tilorone and artemisinin help me slightly (on top of ivermectin and black seed oil). So maybe we’ll discover that there are 7 treatments with antimicrobial properties that are good.
ME/CFS
As far as ME/CFS goes, there is anecdotal evidence from John Chia. His theory is that enteroviruses are a major cause of ME/CFS. He treats patients with Equilibrant, remdesivir, and other drugs/supplements. I don’t really trust doctor anecdotes because there have been too many liars who ruin it for everybody else. He seems to have one a great job with his son though, who is now working (for Gilead).
Desperate ME/CFS patients have tried the metabolite of remdesivir- it seems to be a really sharp double-edged sword. Some patients saw significant improvement while others saw significant worsening.
Evidence against
Fasting
1 of the top 6 treatments is extended fasting. You could make the argument that fasting affects the gut (and mouth) microbiome so that the bacteria go into hibernation and stop translocating into the body. Setting that argument aside, let’s assume that fasting isn’t causing improvement due to its antimicrobial properties. This suggests that there is a non-antimicrobial mechanism of action that is helping people heal.
On a practical level, that isn’t too helpful to chronic illness patients. If fasting fails, then I don’t see what else there is to try. The autophagy theory predicts that certain supplements will work (e.g. resveratrol) but I suspect that resveratrol will be a bust. It also predicts that HCQ will hurt autophagy, but a few lucky people get better on HCQ.
Maybe we could turn to the crazy stuff that happens in the ME/CFS world. I don’t know of many Long COVID sufferers and vax injured who have tried extreme mold avoidance.
Antibiotics (e.g. the cillins, mycins, cyclines, etc.)
These drugs are one of the worst rated treatments on the survey. They were battling it out with SSRIs, TCAs, and exercise for last place. The rate of negative reactions to these drugs is very high, though 1 person said that a macrolide was helpful for their recovery.
It’s weird that the antiparasitics (ivermectin, HCQ) are top drugs while antibiotics are among the worst drugs.
Antibiotics are high risk with a very low chance of the patient reporting improvement. Even if these drugs will work for some people, it’s weird that the odds are stacked against the people who try these.
Personal anecdote: I tried 2 antibiotics knowing the risks… I reacted badly to both cefuroxime and azithromycin.
We may discover other angles of attack
The two best current angles of attack are (a) extended fasting and (b) antimicrobials (or however those top treatments work).
Aside from the known treatments, perhaps maraviroc does something (very low chance of success) despite leronlimab being a bust for Long COVID. The evidence for maraviroc is not good but we don’t have strong evidence saying that it doesn’t work.
Clopidogrel may do something- and it’s probably not related to microclots.
‘Reasonable’ medical experimentation
We know from antibiotics that antimicrobials can be sketchy. It seems like whatever we do, we run the risk of trying a treatment that is far less safe in the chronically ill than healthy individuals. So we can’t just try safe repurposed drugs and assume that they will work similarly in the chronically ill - we already know that this isn’t true. For that reason, you could argue that medical experimentation is quite sketchy and that maybe you should just wait for other people to be the guinea pigs.
If you do want to get spicy and engage in medical experimentation, then I think antimicrobials are the ‘least unreasonable’ option right given the current evidence. If you consider the evidence for and against them, it’s favorable for antimicrobials compared to other treatments.
So if you’re dumb enough to be a human guinea pig like me, try some antimicrobials with me. There’s artemisinin and a number of other drugs. Let’s see how they pan out in the real world.