That's patently false. Antivirals slow the reproduction rate of the virus giving your immune system the upper hand; monoclonal antibodies do exactly what your immune system would do, they bind to the virus either neutralizing it or allowing macrophages to detect and destroy it.
Is there a cure or treatment for herpes?
There is no cure for herpes. Antiviral medications can, however, prevent or shorten outbreaks during the period of time the person takes the medication. In addition, daily suppressive therapy (i.e. daily use of antiviral medication) for herpes can reduce the likelihood of transmission to partners.
Several clinical trials have tested vaccines against genital herpes infection, but there is currently no commercially available vaccine that is protective against genital herpes infection. One vaccine trial showed efficacy among women whose partners were HSV-2 infected, but only among women who were not infected with HSV-1. No efficacy was observed among men whose partners were HSV-2 infected. A subsequent trial testing the same vaccine showed some protection from genital HSV-1 infection, but no protection from HSV-2 infection.
Antiviral Drugs
There is currently no antiviral drug licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat EVD in people.
During the 2018 eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo outbreak, four investigational treatments were initially available to treat patients with confirmed Ebola. For two of those treatments, called regeneron (REGN-EB3) and mAb114, overall survival was much higher. These two antiviral drugs currently remain in use for patients with confirmed Ebola.
Drugs that are being developed to treat EVD work by stopping the virus from making copies of itself.
> During the 2018 eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo outbreak, four investigational treatments were initially available to treat patients with confirmed Ebola. For two of those treatments, called regeneron (REGN-EB3) and mAb114, overall survival was much higher. These two antiviral drugs currently remain in use for patients with confirmed Ebola.
How is this not a cure? If you mean that the cure doesn't save 100% of those who take it, than we have no cure for bacteria as well.
Ebola fatality rate ranges between 25-100%. The only thing that we have as the data is that with these two drugs the fatality rate might be less than 100%. Because Ebola is extremely aggressive and is largely contained to isolated areas its carriers tend to die and everything those people were in contact with is destroyed. Same goes for patients that contract Ebola and recover. That was the protocol for EVD outbreak in West Africa 2014-2016. That's what allowed us to "handle" the issue.
It certainly does not appear that COVID-19 has a similar protocol, at which point we are in herpes territory of managing disease rather than curing it. I find it very strange that this is not being addressed.
Isn't this similar to a typical antibiotics regimen? The abx kill a lot of bacteria with an X-log reduction and the immune system takes out what's left?
Antibiotics target bacteria. We have been successfully killing bacteria ever since the invention of penicillin.
The rule of the thumb is "prevent viral infections via vaccinations because they cannot be treated" and "treat bacterial infections using antibiotics because they cannot be prevented"
Ebola patients either die or their immune system fights off the disease.