interferons by themselves as treatment for such patients.

Gray says that, even if medication proved to be effective treatment for another coronavirus outbreak, like SARS or MERS (interferon-alfa-2B wasn’t consistently effective), that still wouldn’t guarantee it would work for Covid-19.

“It gives you more of an indication of sort of efficacy and safety but this is a slightly different virus,” he says.

“Most of the Covid-19 cases are mild and resolve on their own. Due to the nature of the virus, it’s difficult to tell if giving medication to some patients helps them recover or if it’s just the virus passing on its own.”

No, the World Health Organisation does NOT recommend this treatment

So why would government officials then be procuring interferon-alfa-2B to treat Covid-19 patients?

Kwara Kekana, spokesperson for Masuku responded: “The medication has been used for specialised patient treatment as is, under the guidance of specialists in SA.

“[It] has antiviral properties.”

Kekana says doctors in Gauteng will use guidelines as set out by the WHO.

But the WHO doesn’t recommend interferons as treatment.

The national department of health did not respond to questions on guidelines for treatment or comment on the endorsement of an interferon treatment at the time of publication.

The mayor’s ‘vaccine’ and the curious case of Cuba  

Despite not having any evidence of interferon-alfa-2B as effective treatment for Covid-19, Nehawu said in its statement: “The Cuban pharmaceutical industry gave a guarantee on Saturday [14 March 2020] that the production of the 22 drugs used for the treatment of Covid-19 n South Africa, all drugs must be approved for use in the country by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra). This also applies during a state of disaster, as we currently have with Covid-19.

If a medication is not approved by Sahpra, that decision is final and not even the health minister can override it.

In the case of interferon-alfa-2B, Sahpra would require a randomised controlled clinical trial showing it can treat patients with Covid-19.

“All Covid-19 projects will be expedited within a timeframe of, at most, a month, once an application with the relevant data is submitted to Sahpra,” explains Sahpra spokesperson Yuven Govender.

The interferon drug that Masina spoke about is already registered for use in South Africa as a cancer treatment. The United States pharmaceutical company,