New York Hospitals Utilizing Vitamin C

Each dose is more than 16 times the national recommended guideline allowances of 90 mg for adult men and 75 mg for adult women. This approach is based on experimental treatments and small studies involving coronavirus patients in Shanghai, China; a hospital even made a release about it. 

The official statement from Xi’an Jiaotong University Second Hospital reads: 

“On the afternoon of February 20, 2020, another 4 patients with severe new coronaviral pneumonia recovered from the C10 West Ward of Tongji Hospital. In the past 8 patients have been discharged from hospital. . . [H]igh-dose vitamin C achieved good results in clinical applications. We believe that for patients with severe neonatal pneumonia and critically ill patients, vitamin C treatment should be initiated as soon as possible after admission. . .[E]arly application of large doses of vitamin C can have a strong antioxidant effect, reduce inflammatory responses, and improve endothelial function. . . Numerous studies have shown that the dose of vitamin C has a lot to do with the effect of treatment. . . [H]gh-dose vitamin C can not only improve antiviral levels, but more importantly, can prevent and treat acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress (ARDS).”

“The patients who received vitamin C did significantly better than those who did not get vitamin C,” said Weber. “It helps a tremendous amount, but it is not highlighted because it’s not a sexy drug.”

Jason Molinet who is spokesperson for Northwell states that vitamin C is being “widely used”  to treat COVID-19 patients throughout the system, but the treatment protocols vary from patient to patient “as the clinician decides.” Currently about 700 patients are being treated across the hospital network, but Molient was not sure exactly how many were getting vitamin C treatments. 

The vitamin C treatments are being administered in addition to other medicines such as hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and various other biologicals and blood thinners, according to Weber. New York hospitals have been given federal permission to administer a cocktail of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine to desperately ill patients on a compassionate care basis. 

Vitamin C levels dramatically drop in those with COVID-19 when they experience sepsis, which is an inflammatory response that happens when the body overreacts to the infection. “It makes all the sense in the world to try and maintain this level of vitamin C,” says Weber.

Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China is conducting clinical trials on the effectiveness of high dose intravenous vitamin C on COVID-19 patients. One is a randomized triple blind study involving 140 COVID-19 patients, and it is expected to be complete by September, 30, 2020 based on information posted in the National Library of Medicine’s website. 

The small French study published last week using the cocktail combination of hydroxychloroquine/Plaquenil and azithromycin/Zithromax showed that 5 out of 6 COVID-19 patients that were treated with the cocktail tested negative on day 3 and all tested negative on day 6. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases cautions that this cocktail has not been proven in clinical trials.