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I Can Handle The Truth

Breaking News Story (Not fiction)

New study finds higher death rate in patients taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19
Coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine..., were no less likely to need mechanical ventilation and had higher deaths rates compared to those who did not take the drug, according to a study of hundreds of patients at United States Veterans Health Administration medical centers.

In the study of 368 patients, 97 patients who took hydroxychloroquine had a 27.8% death rate. The 158 patients who did not take the drug had an 11.4% death rate.

“An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs,”

wrote the authors, who work at the Columbia VA Health Care System in South Carolina, the University of South Carolina and the University of Virginia.

Researchers also looked at whether taking hydroxychloroquine or a combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, had an effect on whether a patient needed to go on a ventilator. They found there was no difference between these groups and the patients who took neither drug.
daisymay · 51-55, T
Weird. The president* of the USA has a "natural ability" for viruses and "stuff" (his own words, no less) and claimed that this was the cure for COVID-19.

Someone is lying.
PowerofStories · 61-69, M
@daisymay I'm not trying to be political here. I am not a big fan of the President for many reasons and have made no secret of that on this site.

However, regardless of which person or party touts any drug's effectiveness, it is critically important (way more than any political implications) that Doctors and Patients get the best information possible on treatment.
daisymay · 51-55, T
@PowerofStories [quote]it is critically important (way more than any political implications) that Doctors and Patients get the best information possible on treatment[/quote]

Sure, but to ignore the political reality (which is that politics are trying to alter the perception of actual reality) as a cause of the misinformation people are receiving isn't going to help much.

I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought you (or the study you mention) were the ones lying :) I'm just so pissed off at the utter ignorance and incompetence that people are claiming is the best we can do.

🍾
PowerofStories · 61-69, M
@daisymay No I wasn't feeling defensive about what you said. I just wanted to make my motivation clear in making the post. If the evidence about the effectiveness of hydroxycloroquine comes back positive, I'd need to be consistent in the other direction and be supportive of its use.

As Neil deGrasse Tyson once said "That's the good thing about science: It's true whether or not you believe in it."
PowerofStories · 61-69, M
I am trying to track down the actual study. It is not yet published, but has been submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine.
PowerofStories · 61-69, M
Here is a link to an abstract of the actual study:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.20065920v1
PowerofStories · 61-69, M
To put it in perspective, it is still a small study. But it is the largest so far and the fourth in a row (after Studies in Brazil, France and Sweden) that showed results (for groups of patients taken as a whole) that those treated with hydroxychloroquine fared no better than those who did not receive this drug.
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