Is HCQ a Safe and Effective Treatment for Covid-19?
July 9, 2020
Treating
COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) shortly after they
were hospitalized significantly reduced the death rate in treated
patients compared with patients who did not receive the drug. That’s the
remarkable conclusion of a large observational study conducted in six
Detroit-area hospitals, published July 2 in “The International Journal of Infectious Diseases”.
That study would seem to contradict
two earlier medical journal reports (one has since been discredited and
withdrawn because of questionable data) that concluded that the drug
was neither
safe nor effective in treating the virus. On the other
hand, it does support results reported by many practicing physicians
both here and abroad who claim that they are treating virus patients
with HCQ and achieving favorable symptomatic relief.
What’s going on here?
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This apparent contradiction in
outcomes can be resolved by noticing that the earlier studies were based
entirely on older COVID-19 patients who were already severely ill and
hospitalized, while physicians in the field have generally been
administering HCQ to younger patients with only mild to moderate
symptoms. In short, the patient cohort and medical protocols in these
instances have been entirely different. Yet this absolutely crucial
distinction has been omitted in most of the previous media coverage of
HCQ.
Indeed, almost from the moment that
President Donald Trump speculated that the drug could be used against
the virus, the MSM has repeatedly alleged that HCQ “kills people” and
that there are dangerous heart irregularities associated with its use.
It should be noted that the Detroit study cited above closely
monitored cardiac health and found no increase in heart problems
associated with HCQ. But the MSM should already have been skeptical
about any significant health dangers since HCQ has been an FDA approved
drug for decades (malaria treatment) and has had a spectacular safety
profile.
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Yet the MSM is not the only culprit in
this heavy-handed and sloppy scientific coverage of HCQ. In several
instances, State regulatory boards have legally threatened several
pharmacies about filling HCQ prescriptions. The FDA itself has been
intimidating physicians for months about using the drug (off label) to
treat COVID-19. And even as late as May 27, Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed
that the drug was simply not effective against the disease.
But now it turns out that these
government warnings and outlandish media allegations were entirely
wrong-headed. And the cost? A reasonable guess is that all of this
likely created a strong “chilling effect” for many doctors in
prescribing what may well be a remarkably cheap, safe and effective drug
for Covid-19 symptom relief. What a shame. But don’t hold your breath
waiting for any apologies.
Dr. Armentano [send him mail] is professor emeritus in economics at the University of Hartford in Connecticut and the author of Antitrust and Monopoly and Antitrust: The Case for Repeal.
Copyright © Dom Armentano
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