Confirming the reports from small independent studies and 3 clinical trials, a Shanghai hospital has announced a recommendation to use high dose intravenous treatment of vitamin C to treat COVID-19, according to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service.

The announced official recommendation that COVID-19 should be treated with high doses of intravenous vitamin C come as welcomed news as the virus continues to spread. The dosage recommendation will vary with the severity of illness ranging from 50-200 milligrams per kilogram body weight per day to as much as 16,000 mg/kg/day.

*Note: "Using Vitamin C" was added to the title on April, 13, 2020.

The doses are ranging from approximately 4,000 to 16,000 mgs for an adult which is administered by an IV. Atsuo Yanagisawa, MD, PhD who is President of the Japanese College of Intravenous Therapy states that this specific method of administration is very important because vitamin C’s effects are at least 10 times more powerful when taken by IV rather than orally, and that “Intravenous vitamin C is a safe, effective, and broad-spectrum antiviral.”

Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD is the associate director for the clinical trials. We are proud to say that Dr. Cheng is a Fellow and board certified anti-aging physician by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) as well as being a Fellow and board certified A4M Integrative Cancer Therapy. Dr. Cheng has been working closely with medical and government authorities through China and has been instrumental in facilitating at least 3 of the clinical IV vitamin C studies in China. Despite most of his work being sensored and blocked by most media Dr. Cheng has been trying to bring this information to the public and will continue his efforts to encourage more hospitals to implement IV vitamin C therapy along with high doses of oral vitamin C as well. Additionally, both Dr. Cheng and Dr. Yanagisawa recommend oral vitamin C for prevention of COVID-19.

Comments from Dr. Cheng in February reads:

“Vitamin C is very promising for prevention, and especially important to treat dying patients when there is no better treatment. Over 2,000 people have died of the COIV-19 outbreak and yet I have not seen or heard large dose intravenous vitamin C being used in any of the cases. The current sole focus on vaccine and specific antiviral drugs for epidemics is misplaced.”

“Early and sufficiently large doses of intravenous vitamin C are critical. Vitamin C is not only a prototypical antioxidant, but also involved in virus killing and prevention of viral replication. The significance of large dose intravenous vitamin C is not just at antiviral level. It is acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) that kills most people from coronaviral pandemics (SARS, MERS and now NCP). ARDS is a common final pathway leading to death.

The official statement from Xi’an Jiaotong University Second Hospital reads:

“On the afternoon of February 20, 2020, another 4 patients with severe new coronaviral pneumonia recovered from the C10 West Ward of Tongji Hospital. In the past 8 patients have been discharged from hospital. . . [H]igh-dose vitamin C achieved good results in clinical applications. We believe that for patients with severe neonatal pneumonia and critically ill patients, vitamin C treatment should be initiated as soon as possible after admission. . .[E]arly application of large doses of vitamin C can have a strong antioxidant effect, reduce inflammatory responses, and improve endothelial function. . . Numerous studies have shown that the dose of vitamin C has a lot to do with the effect of treatment. . . [H]gh-dose vitamin C can not only improve antiviral levels, but more importantly, can prevent and treat acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress (ARDS).”

The protocol from the Chinese government can be read here, they are not blocking this news.

Then why are we not hearing more about this on the news when you can find it published online in many places, it does make one wonder. But this can be corrected at any time by people sharing the news, we have included various links that will take you to the information including the clinical trials.

To be blunt not sharing or withholding information from the public of potential treatments should be seen as negligence. Vitamin C is not new, it is available, and has been proven and used as an antiviral since the 1930s(1). Vitamin C has been injected at high doses since the 1940s(2), and has been used for influenza, SARS, and viral pneumonia in the decades since then(3).

“At my hospital in Daegu, South Korea, all inpatients and all staff members have been using vitamin C orally since last week. Some people this week had a mild fever, headaches and coughs, and those who had symptoms got 30,000 mg intravenous vitamin C. Some people got better after about two days, and most had symptoms go away after one injection.” (Hyoungjoo Shin, M.D.)

“We need to broadcast a message worldwide very quickly: Vitamin C (small or large dose) does no harm to people and is the one of the few, if not the only, agent that has a chance to prevent us from getting, and can treat, COVID-19 infection. When can we, medical doctors and scientists, put patients’ lives first?” (Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD, International Vitamin C China Epidemic Medical Support Team Leader).

“We therefore call for a worldwide discussion and debate on this topic,” says Dr. Cheng.