Hydroxychloroquine Linked To 17,000 Deaths

[BeaverFever]

Hydroxychloroquine, A Drug Trump Promoted To Treat Covid-19, Linked To 17,000 Deaths, Estimates Show

Joshua CohenJan 7, 2024,

 

A bottle of pills of hydroxychloroquine sit on a [+] AFP via Getty Images

 

The former president, Donald Trump, repeatedly promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine in the spring of 2020, as both a preventative against and treatment for Covid-19. He did this despite the drug not having proven effectiveness or safety. According to a study published in the February 2024 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, the pharmaceutical has now been linked to approximately 17,000 deaths.

The drug known as an anti-malarial for decades, hydroxychloroquine, was prescribed to patients by some doctors during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits.” Authors of a new study—a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials involving 44 separate cohort studies—estimate that 16,990 Covid-19 patients in the U.S., France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Turkey died as a result of taking the drug. This translates into an 11% increase in the mortality rate among Covid-19 patients. According to researchers, the toxicity of hydroxychloroquine in patients with Covid-19 is partially due to its severe cardiac side effects.

Former President Trump made it a habit in the spring of 2020 to preside over daily briefings conducted by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, where he continually embraced preventive and therapeutic use of hydroxychloroquine. Notably, the President’s advice directly contradicted guidance from the nation’s federal public health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were plenty of warnings at the time from clinical researchers and senior public health officials alike, including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, about the unproven, experimental nature of hydroxychloroquine and the concern that it might do more harm than good.

And this wasn’t the only time Trump gave unsound medical advice to the American people. You may recall when in April 2020 Trump infamously suggested that bleach or other disinfectant chemicals could be useful to combat coronavirus infections. In the spring of 2020, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, accidental poisonings as a consequence of people ingesting bleach or other household cleaners spiked in America, doubling from their levels a year before.

This takes nothing away from the positive work of the Trump Administration during the Covid-19 pandemic, igncluding its efforts initiating Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. This program has been hugely successful, as measured by the pace at which Covid-19 vaccines and treatments were developed and launched.

But Trump’s issuance of unwarranted treatment recommendations left a lot to be desired. All such governmental advice must be tightly regulated and given only by those with the requisite knowledge and expertise.

This is not to say that there aren’t things that could improve at U.S. public health agencies, including messaging by medical experts. But in the end those in government disseminating messages to the public ought to be officials whose expertise isn’t in doubt. They may make mistakes, but they’re qualified practitioners of medicine or have a clinical science background. Trump did not have this. He never should have gone to the podium and addressed the American people touting unproven therapies or dangerous substances.

The moral of this story is that when presidents with no medical expertise contravene public health entities, expect trouble. This is particularly the case when a president like Trump takes center stage, upstaging rigorously trained medical professionals rather than leaving all actual healthcare decisions and guidance up to them.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2024/01/07/trump-promoted-hydroxychloroquine-to-treat-covid-19-a-drug-now-linked-to-17000-deaths/?sh=3108819d2fcd

Edited January 8, 2024 by BeaverFever

[Legato]

Quote

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has shown efficacy against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in some but not all studies. We hypothesized that a systematic review would show HCQ to be effective against COVID-19, more effective when provided earlier, not associated with worsening disease and safe. We searched PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Google Scholar and Google for all reports on HCQ as a treatment for COVID-19 patients. This included preprints and preliminary reports on larger COVID-19 studies. We examined the studies for efficacy, time of administration and safety. HCQ was found to be consistently effective against COVID-19 when provided early in the outpatient setting. It was also found to be overall effective in inpatient studies. No unbiased study found worse outcomes with HCQ use. No mortality or serious safety adverse events were found. HCQ is consistently effective against COVID-19 when provided early in the outpatient setting, it is overall effective against COVID-19, it has not produced worsening of disease and it is safe.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7534595/

[BeaverFever]

9 hours ago, Legato said:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7534595/

You don’t understand how science works.

Your ONE limited study that was published only 6 months after the start covid doesn’t “prove” anything. 
 

There are dozens and dozens of comprehensive studies discrediting HCQ as an effective COVID treatment, which has been the scientific consensus has been for years now. The article in the OP has linked HCQ to 17,000 unnecessary deaths. 
 

Trump supports are hilarious. 

[Michael Hardner]

1 hour ago, BeaverFever said:

You don’t understand how science works.

Your ONE limited study that was published only 6 months after the start covid doesn’t “prove” anything. 
 

There are dozens and dozens of comprehensive studies discrediting HCQ as an effective COVID treatment, which has been the scientific consensus has been for years now. The article in the OP has linked HCQ to 17,000 unnecessary deaths. 
 

Trump supports are hilarious. 

Your premise is sound but you should have cited the dates of Legato's study vs the one you posted and the responses.  But i applaud your efforts to explain the big picture, assuming the poster you are posting to is open-minded.  I have them on ignore, which likely means I doubt their honesty.  Cheers.

[herbie]

And ypu didn't "balance" the results with the hundreds of thousands of fools that would've died from worms if they didn't take it.