# Considering Zpack for a virus (COVID19) - Destroys don't take a antibiotic for a virus argument? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 23, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/considering-zpack-for-a-virus-covid19-destroys-dont-take-a-antibiotic-for-a-virus-argument/850130 "2020-03-23T22:41:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/considering-zpack-for-a-virus-covid19-destroys-dont-take-a-antibiotic-for-a-virus-argument/850130/21 "2020-03-25T16:44:15Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It seems like Zpack is being considered as part of a cure/treatment for COVID19. That seems to obliterate the argument that antibiotics do nothing against viruses. Just that it was considered as a potential treatment seems to say a lot . If it was so sure that it does nothing, why even consider it at all? Many of us know from personal experience that they seem to help, though others say that the person would most likely have recovered the same without them. We might not know how it helps, but is this the crack in the armor against ‘inappropriate’ antibiotic usage? Others have probably beaten me to it, but antibiotics do nothing to stop viruses - absolutely nothing at all. They stop the secondary effects of a virus that lead to bacterial infection, but it would be terribly unwise to take Z-pack as a prophylactic if that’s what you are suggesting. When you get a viral infection of the lungs, your lungs will produce an inflammatory response as a way to eject the virus and to give your body time to build up antibodies, and hopefully, immunity. The problem is that this inflammatory response is fertile ground for a secondary bacterial infection. The deeper into the lungs the fluid goes, the greater the danger for a bacterial infection. It’s the bacteria within the lung that antibiotics fight - your body could be producing antibodies to fight of the initial virus at the same time that your body is struggling to keep bacteria from multiplying and spreading into the bloodstream, or struggling to keep the bacteria from drowning you in your own fluids. But it does nothing to stop the virus itself. It doesn’t kill the virus. It doesn’t help build antibodies. Once you’ve got the virus, you’ve got it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/considering-zpack-for-a-virus-covid19-destroys-dont-take-a-antibiotic-for-a-virus-argument/850130/22 "2020-03-25T17:19:07Z")
Amantadine was fairly useless for the flu even before local resistance, at best reducing symptoms by days. But you are right it is a dopamine agonist. I just didn’t want to get into the mechanisms of all the reverse transcriptases and more complex things. I was just hoping to make the point viruses act differently and antibiotics vary a lot from each other. So best not to throw the baby out with the bath water even if a typical antibiotic does little for a typical viral infection. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/considering-zpack-for-a-virus-covid19-destroys-dont-take-a-antibiotic-for-a-virus-argument/850130/23 "2020-03-26T16:41:31Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > The z-pack is used in conjunction with the anti-malarial chloroquine. Whether it is a synergistic effect, or if the anti-inflammatory effect of z-mycin allows the chloroquine to attack the virus more efficiently, I doubt there have been many studies to show exactly why this combo works. > ~VOW IF it works. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of cases of exciting, novel treatments for things that turned out to be utterly useless. My advice is that nobody get excited about something like this until there’s real evidence of wide-scale success. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/considering-zpack-for-a-virus-covid19-destroys-dont-take-a-antibiotic-for-a-virus-argument/850130.md?page=1)