HMM. FOR A WHILE THEY WERE SAYING TO AVOID IT AS DANGEROUS: Coronavirus: Ibuprofen tested as a treatment.

The trial will use a special formulation of ibuprofen rather than the regular tablets that people might usually buy. Some people already take this lipid capsule form of the drug for conditions like arthritis.

Studies in animals suggest it might treat acute respiratory distress syndrome – one of the complications of severe coronavirus.

Prof Mitul Mehta, one of the team at King’s College London, said: “We need to do a trial to show that the evidence actually matches what we expect to happen.”

Early in the pandemic there were some concerns that ibuprofen might be bad for people to take, should they have the virus with mild symptoms.

These were heightened when France’s health minister Oliver Veran said that taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, could aggravate the infection and advised patients to take paracetamol instead.

A review by the Commission on Human Medicines quickly concluded that, like paracetamol, it was safe to take for coronavirus symptoms. Both can bring a temperature down and help with flu-like symptoms.

Hmm.