Oh, what a joyous day for science! In the midst of a global pandemic, some intrepid researchers at the West China Hospital of Sichuan University decided to play detective with 1018 medical records to see if a drug called Secukinumab was playing nice with COVID-19 in patients with Spondylarthritis. Because, you know, nothing screams fun like sifting through a mountain of paperwork.

So, they narrowed it down to just 190 SpA patients, because who needs a bigger sample size when you can have a more “manageable” one, right? Then, they got on the phone and had a little chit-chat with 122 of these lucky individuals and 259 of their nearest and dearest cohabitants, who were roped in as a control group. Because nothing says “scientific control” like living with someone who has a chronic inflammatory disease.

Now, hold onto your hats, because here comes the shocker: 83.6% of the Secukinumab-treated SpA patients got COVID-19, compared to a whopping 88.8% of the cohabitants. The difference was so insignificant it could make a statistician weep with joy (OR = 0.684, CI 0.366-1.275). And, in a twist that no one saw coming, having a fever from COVID-19 was less of a hot time for the Secukinumab group. Who would’ve thought?

But wait, there’s more! Stopping Secukinumab after catching the virus didn’t make a lick of difference to the COVID-19 course or the SpA flare-ups. So, the grand conclusion? Pumping SpA patients full of Secukinumab doesn’t seem to invite COVID-19 to the party any more than usual, and it might even tell the fever to chill out.

Bravo, researchers, for this groundbreaking revelation that a drug for an inflammatory disease might just be… anti-inflammatory during an infection. Who could have guessed?