SAN DIEGO—University of California researchers announced on Nov. 12 that they, together with colleagues from other institutions, are assessing whether medicinal mushrooms and Chinese herbs can provide therapeutic benefit in treating acute COVID-19 infection. This research study, “Mushrooms and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19” (MACH-19), is a multi-center effort led by the University of California–San Diego (UCSD) and University of California–Los Angeles, along with the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. It is among the first to evaluate these medicines using a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. “We hope these treatments will reduce the need for hospitalization,” said MACH-19 principal investigator Dr. Gordon Saxe, director of research at the Centers for Integrative Health at UCSD School of Medicine. Three trials are recruiting for between 66 and 80 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 and who are quarantined at home with mild to moderate symptoms. One of the studies, which started in December and is slated to run until December …