Then mid-March brought another startling
surprise: In a training video for U.S. cardiologists,
Chinese doctors warned that the virus causes
dangerous blood clots, and not just in the lungs.
Dr. Bin Cao of the China-Japan Friendship
Hospital in Beijing explained that as the virus
sneaks past the lungs into the bloodstream, it
damages the lining of blood vessels, forming
clots in the heart, kidneys, “all over the body.” He
urged American doctors to use blood thinners
protectively in the severely ill.
In Italy’s epicenter, doctors were making the
same discovery. Lorini described a scramble to
get the word out via Skype and email. “This is a
vascular sickness more than a pulmonary one
and we didn’t know that,” he said.
In the U.S., the finding about blood thinners
made biological sense to Dr. Tiffany Osborn, a
critical care physician at Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis.
“It means at least you’re not shooting in the dark.
You’re trying something that from a physiologic
standpoint makes sense,” said Osborn, who
was living in a camper in her driveway to avoid
bringing the virus home to her family after her
long ICU shifts.
By April, many doctors were bowing to pressure
to try a malaria drug named hydroxychloroquine
that obsessed President Donald Trump. Osborn
never understood why such a drug would work
and, sure enough, it eventually failed when put
to a real test.
But what else might be effective?
“We’re learning as we go,” Osborn said. “You
could talk to me in two weeks and I might be