There is no RNA cloning machinery in our cells. The RNA is instead copied from the DNA in the nucleus. Viruses like the coronavirus actually bring their own RNA cloning machinery that's assembled by the cell. Remdesivir only blocks the RNA cloning proteins of the virus.
Doesn't that mean that Remdesivir would essentially defeat _all_ RNA viruses? Or is the effectiveness dependent on the exact RNA cloning mechanism used by the virus?
Yep. This is the same drug they tried to deploy against Ebola, and that's why they think itll be useful for such a wildly different drug virus here as well
