Folks, I just had an interesting thought regarding stopping the spread of COVID. Would appreciate input from anyone who can poke holes in it.
We know COVID has a hard time spreading in regions where malaria is endemic. This is possibly due to the prevalence of quinine-based treatments there, of which hydroxychloroquine is one. Would it be feasible to add a small amount of the stuff to a nation's water supply, the same way tapwater is already fluoridated, or the way small less-than-possibly-harmful amounts of quinine exist in common tonic water/ginger ale?
You could calibrate the amount precisely enough where someone literally couldn't drink enough water to hurt themselves with the quinine, without the hyponatremia (water toxicity) killing them first, yet the quinine would still reach a low level of saturation across the population, perhaps mimicking the quasi-herd-immunity effect seen in malaria-afflicted regions.
Thoughts?