What I'm reading says it does not
all come back to the lungs - that
even if your lungs were working properly your red blood cells may not bind to oxygen. In which case, only direct oxygenization of the blood works. The machine that re-oxygenates blood directly is called an ECMO. They are rare.
But this would explain the sudden deaths of people who do not have pneumonia. Obviously, having pneumonia would increase the problem, but if the underlying problem is not (mainly) the lungs but instead the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen, that's a very different problem to solve.
I am not talking about the symptoms, I'm talking about research into the mechanism by which CV19 robs people of oxygen.
If your lungs were working perfectly and this theorized method of blocking oxygen from sticking to hemaglobin is correct, then the cure to this disease is to denature the spike protein of CV19 that is keeping red blood cells from carrying oxygen. Plasma transfusions seem promising and there's a big call for subjects in the NY region; Sweden is already carrying out such research, as are many tertiary care centers in the US.
Distant sequence similarity between hepcidin and the novel...
In other news, the hydroxychloroquine idea may not work and may, in fact, lead to major complications or death in persons with particular underlying conditions or who are taking other medicines for serious medical problems.