Statins reduce COVID-19 severity, likely by removing cholesterol that virus uses to infect

This also seems to explain at least part of the reason overweight people are more susceptible to Covid-19.

 https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/uoc--src092320.php

News Release 23-Sep-2020
University of California - San Diego

There are no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatments for COVID-19, the pandemic infection caused by a novel coronavirus. While several therapies are being tested in clinical trials, current standard of care involves providing patients with fluids and fever-reducing medications. To speed the search for new COVID-19 therapies, researchers are testing repurposed drugs -- medicines already known to be safe for human use because they are FDA-approved for other conditions -- for their abilities to mitigate the virus.

UC San Diego Health researchers recently reported that statins -- widely used cholesterol-lowering medications -- are associated with reduced risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease, as well as faster recovery times. A second research team at UC San Diego School of Medicine has uncovered evidence that helps explains why: In short, removing cholesterol from cell membranes prevents the coronavirus from getting in.


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The researchers found that statin use prior to hospital admission for COVID-19 was associated with a more than 50 percent reduction in risk of developing severe COVID-19, compared to those with COVID-19 but not taking statins. Patients with COVID-19 who were taking statins prior to hospitalization also recovered faster than those not taking the cholesterol-lowering medication.

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