Could we see Covid anti-virals before a vaccine?

In a strategy that now appears to be one of outright suppression, the government has put huge stock in the approval of a vaccine before too long. But could the answer turn out to be not a vaccine but an anti-viral drug? Research by a team from Bristol University and published in the journal Science today has discovered a possible basis for a drug that could prevent the SARS-Cov-2 virus entering the human body. 

While studying the spike protein that facilitates spread of the virus, the team, led by Imre Berger and Christiane Schaffitzel, unexpectedly found molecules of linoleic acid in a pocket of the protein. 

Linoleic acid — as well as being a constituent of linseed oil and a component of many industrial processes such as the manufacture of linoleum — is an essential fatty acid that is required, among other things, to maintain cell membranes in the lungs.