Opinion: Professor Peter Shepherd weighs in on next steps for Covid-19 response

Professor Peter Shepherd who hails from Kaitaia weighs in on the next steps in the Covid-19 response. Photo / File

Covid-19 is everywhere and being far away from big cities is no protection.

This summer many people will be self-isolating to recover from Covid-19, or worse still will end up in intensive care, which is naturally causing a lot of fear and anxiety for many people. So is there any good news?

There is and the good news is, we are making rapid progress in understanding how to treat Covid-19, with three levels of medical approaches.

The best analogy I can use is to imagine Covid-19 as an arsonist trying to burn down our house. This is because once Covid-19 gets into the cells in our body it causes real damage that in some ways is like a fire in a house.

The first thing to do is stop the arsonist from getting into the house.

Having a strong immune system alone won't do this as your immune system needs specific weapons to fight Covid-19 and needs to see part of Covid-19 to do this.

These weapons are "anti-Covid-19 antibodies" and can only be developed by our immune system either through the use of vaccines or by catching Covid-19.

If you catch Covid-19, your body will slowly make antibodies over two weeks but by then Covid-19 could have already set the house on fire.

This is a bit like calling the police who won't be able to get to your house straight away and only a couple of them may arrive and by then the arsonist has already set the house alight.

Vaccines get your body to make lots of these antibodies before you ever see the virus so when Covid-19 does arrive it's stopped in its tracks. Almost like having your own private bouncers at your house ready to go to prevent the arsonist from entering.

In really sick people a drug called Ronapreve can be used. This is a version of a Covid-19 fighting antibody but is actually made in a factory and can do a similar job to our own antibodies, like an instant booster.

This will be used in New Zealand shortly, but has to be injected and is only used when people are really sick in hospital with Covid-19 so again, by that stage the arsonist is already in the house.

Once the virus is in your body, the next thing that can be used is another type of drug called an anti-viral.

These drugs stop the virus from reproducing inside our cells, like fighting the arsonist when he is in the house to stop him from causing a fire. I

Initially, researchers tried drugs already used for treating other things such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin hoping they might have anti-viral effects.

Unfortunately, these don't work too well and can cause more damage than good.

Imagine it like trying to use a wild bull inside your house to evict the arsonist, it's probably going to do more damage than the arsonist himself.

What we really need is ninjas to take out the virus while causing minimal damage to the house and recently some ninja-like drugs have been specifically designed to target the Covid-19 causing virus.

In New Zealand, two of these drugs, Molnupiravir and Remdisavir, are being rushed into service and will help people who get really sick with Covid-19.

The good thing is that different types of anti-viral drugs target different ways the virus works, so it's a bit like tackling around the legs and the head (head high tackles against viruses are still permitted). In future, these will probably be used together to get maximum effect.

The third type of drug is the one that tries to put out the flames if the fire starts getting out of hand and are already being used here in New Zealand.

This is a bit like using a fire brigade and includes blood-thinning drugs to prevent blood clots caused by Covid-19 and other drugs which target the hormones increased by Covid-19 and cause serious inflammation. These drugs stop the life-threatening excessive immune response to Covid-19 that happens in some patients.

So science has brought us a long way in a very short time and as a result, we'll soon have an increasing range of ways to help us tackle Covid-19 so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We can't rely on the drugs alone, however, especially as these will only be used for the really seriously sick people.

So the best thing you can do is to stop the virus from taking hold in the first place is get your two shots and your booster to get your own private bouncers to stop Covid-19 burning down your house.

Peter Shepherd is a Professor at the Dept of Molecular Medicine and Pathology at The University of Auckland and is a Fellow of Royal Society of New Zealand- Te Aparangi. He has received his education and training at Te Hapua School, Kaitaia Intermediate, Kaitaia College, Massey University, Harvard Medical School, University of Cambridge and University College London.