The confusion aroundhydroxychloroquineis one of the most enduring parts of thecoronaviruspandemic.
But, for a time, no one could blame you for thinking otherwise.
And yet the myth of hydroxychloroquine as our COVID-19 savior persists.
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As the pandemic drags on, were all getting desperate for a cure.
The science just isnt there to show hydroxychloroquine is the answer to COVID-19.
So why did the world go wild for it?
How COVID-19and politicsdisrupted how we do science.
The only way to know if a treatment is safe and really works on COVID-19 is through rigorous testing.
Randomized controlled trialsare considered the gold standard in research to ensure treatment safety and efficacy.
are equal between groups.
Another major jot down of study isobservational, meaning researchers give patients a treatment and watch what happens.
Another important part of the study process ispeer reviewand publication.
This helps see to it a study is as accurate and as truthful as possible.
Peer review can be an important filter, but it also misses a lot.
I think the real mistake is treating any single study as definitive.
As Dr. Oransky points out, We all want drugs and other treatments to work.
This is a unique situation, says Dr. Prasad.
There is no oversight.
Doctors can really do whatever they want.
This added to the confusion in public understanding of hydroxychloroquine.
That doesnt always happen for lots of reasons, says Murray.
Sometimes it may be because a paper winds up having a massive flaw in design or execution.
Brazilian PresidentJair Bolsonaro has claimedhydroxychloroquine would treat him when he tested positive for the virus.
In May, American PresidentDonald Trump saidhe was taking the medication preventively in case he contracted the infection.
Later that month,he said hed stopped taking the drug.
All that said, the strongest science doesn’t support the idea that HCQ treats or prevents COVID-19.
So what does the science actually say?
Most people in the U.S. are not deficient in zinc, according to theMayo Clinic.
Lets start with the studies hydroxychloroquine proponents often use to bolster their case.
As evidence of his point, Dr. Risch cites results from research like acontrolled non-randomized studyin Brazil.
The 224 people who declined the treatment made up the control group.
Another 377 untreated people made up the control group.
The study looked at 2,541 adults who were hospitalized for COVID-19 at Henry Ford Hospital in southeast Michigan.
Some received hydroxychloroquine, some received azithromycin, some received both, and some took neither medication.
That makes it tough to determine which drug was responsible for the noted benefit.
That, however, doesnt mean they dont also have their own limitations.
For example, Murray points to a randomized controlled trial published this July inThe New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers randomly assigned participants to receive a placebo, hydroxychloroquine alone, or hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin.
As Murray suggests, though, there are limitations to the study.
It wasnt blinded, for example.
About half randomly received hydroxychloroquine and half got a placebo.
This study was double-blind, meaning neither the participants nor the doctors knew who received treatment or a placebo.
A follow-up analysis found that zinc supplementation also had no effect.
This is why the general medical consensus is that hydroxychloroquine isnt the answer to the coronavirus pandemic.
While hydroxychloroquine is relatively safe, it can be very toxic in higher doses, asSELF previously reported.
A slight risk of potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmia is one of a few known side effects.
There are basically no medications people can take with no side effects ever, says Murray.
This one does have some serious side effects that we need to watch out for.
Researchers continue toactively look into this.
There are other potential risks of giving people an unproven drug.
A lot of people go into medicine because they want to help people.
And every day we dont find something to treat this, huge numbers of people are dying.
Everyone would love that this works, but it doesnt mean that it does.
The situation with coronavirus is evolving rapidly.
