https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/may/28/questions-raised-over-hydroxychloroquine-study-which-caused-who-to-halt-trials-for-covid-19
He stressed that even if the paper proved to be problematic, it did
not mean hydroxychloroquine was safe or effective in treating Covid-19.
No strong studies to date have shown the drug is effective.
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have potentially severe and even deadly side effects if used inappropriately,
including heart failure and toxicity. Other studies have found the drug
is associated with higher mortality when given to severely unwell
Covid-19 patients.
Serious concerns have being raised
by bioethicists, clinicians and scientists that scientific rigour and
peer review is falling by the wayside in the race to understand how the
virus spreads and why it has such a devastating impact on some people.
First of all, even if the drug has deadly side effects it might still be useful. If there's a 10% of it killing you but it reduces death from CoVID by more than that, the benefits now outweigh the risks. Don't forget - lots of people who got the smallpox vaccine got ill and died. It's just that a whole lot more people got sick and died from smallpox so we took the lesser of two evils.
ReplyDeleteIt also depends who you use it on. The little data there is that show it works is all on seriously ill patients, not mildly ill or not-yet-ill ones.
by the way, Chag Sameach. Stay healthy and safe