It turns out it helps according to some studies coming out of India, I think S America as well. It does the same thing the mrna vaccines do in that it blocks the protein from attaching cuz it's already latched on, it's just not near as effective. Still better than nothing, would have been good to know at the beginning of the pandemic, but rendered entirely moot with the vaccine supply already meeting the needs. I think it was something like 30% effective at preventing the virus compared to placebo group and helped people from getting as sick.
For countries without access to the vaccines it would probably help significantly. I got both shots and I'm already itching for my Delta variant booster in a country with more vaccines than we're ever going to need, which is what really makes the entire thing silly.
This makes reference to the Elgazzar study which was entirely withdrawn ---