ACTION: New York launches new COVID-19 drug trials; more underway in China. “New York, ‘ground zero’ for the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, is taking the lead on drug testing, with trials beginning this week on three drugs believed to have potential for treatment. Trials to assess the efficacy and safety of the anti-malaria drug chloroquine, its sister agent hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin will join trials of other drugs going on globally, including tests of an HIV drug and an antiviral.”

Related: David Lat Undergoing ‘Experimental’ Drug Therapy, His Husband Says.

Lat, the founder of the legal blog Above the Law and now a widely recognized legal recruiter who still writes columns for Above the Law, has been hospitalized at NYU Langone Hospital since March 16 due to a worsening COVID-19 infection. For more than a week before being admitted to the hospital, Lat, 44, had experienced intermittent fevers, joint aches, chills, fatigue and coughing. Labored breathing set in by March 15, forcing him to go to his nearest emergency room to seek a coronavirus test. . . .

Lat went from receiving oxygen and being in stable condition last week at NYU Langone, as he posted Twitter threads about his coronavirus battle that he titled “Above the Hospital Bed,” to being put on a ventilator and placed in an intensive care unit late Friday night or early Saturday.

In an interview on March 18, Lat said that he’s generally been a very healthy person. He’s run two New York City marathons and until recently did intense interval training each week and walked about 25 miles a week, as well. He did note, though, that he has exercise-induced asthma.

According to Shemtob, 36, the doctors at NYU Langone on Saturday or late Friday prescribed Lat a Z-Pak (azithromycin) and the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine. They also are treating him with an IL 6-inhibitor to fight the inflammation of Lat’s lungs.

Get well, soon, David.