Antimalarial drug touted by President Trump is linked to increased risk of death in COVID patients

[CousinIT]

Source: Washington Post

A study of 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that those who received an antimalarial drug promoted by President Trump as a “game changer” in the fight against the virus had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not.

People treated with hydroxychloroquine, or the closely related drug chloroquine, were also more likely to develop a type of irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, that can lead to sudden cardiac death, it concluded.

The study, published Friday in the medical journal the Lancet, is the largest analysis to date of the risks and benefits of treating covid-19 patients with antimalarial drugs. It is based on a retrospective analysis of medical records, not a controlled study in which patients are divided randomly into treatment groups — a method considered the gold standard of medicine. But the sheer size of the study was convincing to some scientists.

“It’s one thing not to have benefit, but this shows distinct harm,” said Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. “If there was ever was hope for this drug, this is the death of it.”

David Maron, director of preventive cardiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said that “these findings provide absolutely no reason for optimism that these drugs might be useful in the prevention or treatment of covid-19.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/22/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-study/

[Squinch]

1. Let the self-cullers proceed. This gets them their desired martyrdom to the

god Donny Bodybags, and it doesn't endanger healthcare workers in the process.

[Ohiogal]

2. Donnie Bodybags

Needs to keep taking this stuff in large doses.