Albert Ko at the Yale School of Public Health and others offer guidance.
The World Health Organization and many infectious disease experts say that there is no good scientific evidence establishing a link between ibuprofen and worsening of COVID‑19.
The notion that such a link exists was sparked last weekend when a tweet by the French health minister warned people not to take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs — a category of pain relievers and fever reducers that includes ibuprofen — because, he said, some French COVID-19 patients had experienced serious side effects. The warning was also included in a bulletin from the French health ministry, which counseled that patients should instead use acetaminophen, the generic name for Tylenol.
But experts say that warning isn’t based on data.
“Based on currently available information, WHO does not recommend against the use of ibuprofen,” the WHO stated on its official Twitter account, adding, “‘We are also consulting with physicians treating COVID-19 patients and are not aware of reports of any negative effects of ibuprofen, beyond the usual known side effects that limit its use in certain populations.”
Dr. Angela Rogers, a pulmonologist at the Stanford University Medical Center and chair of its intensive care unit’s COVID-19 task force, notes that Tylenol is the go-to medication for patients who are sick enough to be hospitalized for any infection. That’s because these patients are at higher risk of damage to internal organs, including kidneys. And kidney damage can be a side effect of ibuprofen for some patients who use it long-term in higher doses, says Rogers, whose research focuses on the kind of acute respiratory distress experienced by the most severe COVID-19 cases.
Tylenol, like any medicine, isn’t risk-free either; Rogers notes that acetaminophen can cause serious liver damage in high doses. In low doses, though, she says, Tylenol is “very effective” for reducing fever and “very safe.”
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