Medical University Of South Carolina

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects, good or bad, of two doses of TCZ in combination with standard of care treatment on subjects with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia. This study is testing a drug called tocilizumab (TCZ). During this study, you will be hospitalized and have study procedures daily until discharged (based on your study doctor's decision). After you are discharged from the hospital, you are encouraged to come back for additional assessments; if it is not possible, you may be followed up by telephone by your study doctor or study nurse.
About 100 people will take part in this study in the United States.

People who recover from COVID-19 do so, at least in part, because their blood contains substances called antibodies, which are capable of fighting the virus that causes the illness. It turns out that for some other diseases caused by respiratory viruses, giving people the liquid portion of blood, called plasma, obtained from those who have recovered from the virus, leads to more rapid improvement of the disease. This study hopes to investigate if patients with COVID-19 improve faster if they receive plasma from those who have recovered from COVID-19.

This is a blinded, multicenter, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial. In this trial, the safety and effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 will be evaluated. In this study, a medication called hydroxychloroquine is being investigated to see if it improves recovery from COVID-19 in patients admitted to the hospital. Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria and some joint (rheumatologic) diseases, but it is unknown if it helps patients recover from COVID-19. Study medication will be given for 5 days. This medication could be either hydroxychloroquine or placebo. There will be up to 510 patients in the study at about 50 hospitals in the United States.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent to which health care workers at MUSC who may have higher than average risk for exposure to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes an illness referred to as COVID-19, may have developed immunity to infection. Two groups of people will be asked to participate in this study. The first group is comprised of health care workers with a potentially higher risk of exposure who may have provided direct care or services for persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection as part of their work duties. The second group is comprised of employees whose job duties do not involve direct contact with patients. The purpose of the research is to determine if a certain marker in blood, IgG to SARS-CoV-2, can tell if participants may have been exposed to and now recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection and how seroprevalence changes over time during the current outbreak in this population of study subjects.