One West Texas doctor believes he’s found a “silver bullet” for COVID-19.

Richard Bartlett’s been an emergency room doctor here in the Basin for 28 years. He works across the region at various hospitals and clinics.

The past three months he has been treating high-risk COVID-19 patients, like the elderly, those with heart disease and cancer, with an inhaled steroid called Budesonide.

When reputable Texas doctors offered the world evidence of apparently successful treatment plans for the coronavirus, one might have expected medical researchers and leaders to rush to explore the feasibility of the treatment plan.

Instead, leaders have shunned the news, mainstream media has gone into hyperdrive to discredit the doctors, and medical elites have refused to explore the treatment plans. And now, tech giants have removed and suppressed viral social media posts containing information from those medical professionals regarding their treatments.

This would be world-changing news, probably deserving a Nobel Prize, if true. It would save thousands of lives, end the economic and social upheaval caused by preventive measures, and save billions of dollars on hospital treatments.

The 28-day study of 146 patients suggested that inhaled budesonide reduced the risk of urgent care or hospitalization by 90% when compared with usual care, Oxford University said.

Dr. Fauci have recently discussed the steroid. “You know, there are people that believe that budesonide and taking zinc is working . Is there any downside to doing it?” Fauci was asked recently. “You know, there’s a placebo effect to make you feel better, and less anxious, but in reality, Matthew, it doesn’t have any effect,” replied Fauci.

Meanwhile, some providers are following Bartlett’s lead. Nurse anesthesiologist Andrea Malcolm near San Antonio said that in June and July, her hospital’s 25 beds began to fill with COVID-19 patients. And many would not get better. “Sometimes they would be there for six, seven days, and kind of look the same, and then all of a sudden they would just start going down,” said Malcolm. She and the hospital CEO saw a Dr. Bartlett video on Facebook and decided it was worth a try. “If we waited on double blind peer reviewed studies, we would have so many people dead, what would be the point? So, for me, if I’m not adding a risk, it’s worth seeing if there’s a benefit,” said Malcolm. She says most of her patients have gone home, instead of to a larger hospital."

"We do note that in 2017, inhaled budesonide was tried for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, similar to the worst effects of COVID-19. The 2017 RCT found “a significant difference” in oxygen and airway pressure in the treatment group compared with the placebo group."