Higher death rate for malaria drug touted by Trump: coronavirus study

April 21, 2020 By Agence France-Presse
A malaria drug widely touted as a potential cure for COVID-19 showed no benefit against the disease over standard care — and was in fact associated with more deaths, the biggest study of its kind showed Tuesday.

The US government funded analysis of American military veterans’ treatment courses was posted on a medical preprint site and has not yet been peer reviewed.

The experiment had several important limitations, but adds to a growing body of doubt over the efficacy of the medicine that counts President Donald Trump and right wing news channel Fox News among its biggest backers.

Researchers looked at the medical records of 368 veterans hospitalized nationwide who either died or were discharged by April 11.

Death rates for patients on hydroxychloroquine were 28 percent, compared to 22 percent when it was taken with the anti-biotic azithromycin — a combination favored by French scientist Didier Raoult, whose study on the subject in March triggered a surge of global interest in the drug.

The death rate for those receiving only standard care was 11 percent.

Hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, was more likely to be prescribed to patients with more severe illness, but the authors found that increased mortality persisted even after they statistically adjusted for higher rates of use.

Other drawbacks include the fact that the study did not assign people randomly to groups, because it was a retrospective analysis meaning it looked back on what had already happened.

In addition, the results are hard to generalize because the population was highly specific: most of the patients were male, with a median age over 65, and black, a group that is disproportionately affected by underlying illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.

There was no added risk of being on ventilator among the hydroxychloroquine only group, leading the authors to suggest that increased mortality among this group might be attributable to side-effects outside the respiratory system.

Previous research has found that the medicine is risky for patients with certain heart rhythm issues and can cause blackouts, seizures or at times cardiac arrest in this group.

Hydroxychloroquine and a related compound chloroquine have been used for decades to treat malaria, as well as the autoimmune disorders lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

They have received significant attention during the novel coronavirus pandemic and have been shown in lab settings to block the virus from entering cells and prevent it replicating — but in the pharmaceutical world, “in vitro” promise often fails to translate into “in vivo” success.

The true answer can only be determined through very large, randomized clinical trials that assign patients to receive either the drug under investigation or a placebo.

Several of these are underway, including notably in Europe, Canada and the United Kingdom.

© 2020 AFP

QUACK
Top GOP senator calls for clinical trials in response to study finding hydroxychloroquine doubles COVID-19 death rate

 April 21, 2020 By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn is calling for clinical trials of a malaria and lupus drug touted for weeks by President Donald Trump as a possible cure for coronavirus. Cornyn’s comments are in response to a study that found the use of hydroxychloroquine more than doubles the death rate of COVID-19 patients. There have been no valid studies that show the drug is effective in helping patients suffering from the virus that has killed 176,910 people around the world, including more than 45,000 across the U.S.

“How about real clinical trials?” Cornyn tweeted, quoting an AP report stating the study “was not a rigorous experiment, but it is “the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine with or without the antibiotic azithromycin for COVID-19.” Given this and other studies clinical trials would likely lead to increased deaths.

A study of chloroquine in Brazil was stopped after patients suffered heart problems. A French study found hydroxychloroquine offered no benefits.

Earlier in the day Cornyn tweeted about a separate study he said that “showed that 9 of 10 patients had an underlying medical condition.”

#COVIDー19 The data showed that 9 of 10 patients had an underlying medical condition, including:
—Hypertension: 49.7%
—Diabetes: 28.3%
—Chronic lung disease: 34.6%
—Cardiovascular disease: 27.8%
—Obesity: 48.3% https://t.co/YjabN89Bwc
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) April 21, 2020

His remarks were not met with praise.

What is your point here. That those people deserved to die?
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) April 21, 2020


wow, sucks to be them, right, senator?
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 21, 2020


Well, luckily none of these things exist in Texas, which has the highest % of ppl lacking health insurance in the country (nearly 1 in 5), a number you’d like to make much, much larger by trying to eliminate the ACA pre-existing-condition protections
— Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) April 21, 2020


So 40+% of Americans are pretty much asking for it, Senator? https://t.co/2hQnKCej0K
— Daniel Summers, MD (@WFKARS) April 21, 2020



Dude…https://t.co/BtTLELQSod
— Leah McElrath

 

(@leahmcelrath) April 21, 2020