A drug that would fight the virus could significantly reduce the impact in all scenarios.

The challenge with drugs is that they are typically not effective against viruses. So far there appear to be antiviral and antimalarial drugs available that may help, however it is unclear and the rush on these drugs is causing other problems.

On March 22nd scientists released a list of 69 drugs that may help. Here is a link to the abstract.

Drugs that might help include:

hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine

Efficacy: Unknown.

These are drugs for preventing Malaria. They have been widely prescribed on a hunch that they will work. However, there are no controlled studies underway, so it is hard to say.

Remdisvir

Efficacy: Unknown

Remdisvir is an anti-viral medicine that was initially developed for ebola, but it was not highly effective. There is some evidence that Remdisvir may help with the disease and testing is underway.