Tablets of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. Fox Business/AFP.
A new study from Henry Ford hospital in Detroit Michigan found a 50% reduction in fatalities in Coronavirus case where hydroxychloroquine was used. Fox Business. One group of patients was given the drug while another was given it with azithromycin and both groups saw better outcomes than the control group. The study had more than 2500 participants with an average age of 64. The control group saw 26.4% deaths while HCQ and azithromycin saw only 20.1% with HCQ alone saw even fewer deaths at 13.5%. Other studies have found no effect in HCQ, but the Detroit study administered the drug differently. Instead of being used on critical patients the drug was administered to people in the early stages of the disease. The drug was also not administered to people who have heart problems. Remdesivir, another drug that has been found effective to treat Coronavirus, is much more expensive than HCQ, so if the study can be replicated it could save a lot of money.
My Comment:
I expected the results from this study. Indeed, I have dismissed the studies that have found no effect for HCQ due to the fact that they didn't administer the drugs in a way that made sense. The quinine based drugs were always supposed to work by allowing your body to absorb zinc better, which interferes with the reproduction of the disease.
Giving it to critical patients is therefore mostly pointless as the virus has already reproduced to the point where the drug can't help much. It's like using a small hand extinguisher when the house is already burning to the ground. It's not the way the drug should have been used and it's no wonder why the studies who used it this way failed.
The Detroit model is the one the doctors in the field have used it to some success. Giving it to patients early in the sickness seems to help quite a bit. And I know that many doctors are using it as a prophylactic to prevent themselves from catching the disease.
However, I should caution that one study does not an effective drug make. It's possible that there are problems with this study that might not translate well to other situations. Without being an expert on medicine I can't say for sure if this study is correct or not, but I tend to think that hydroxychloroquine, combined with azithromycin or not, is mostly harmless and should be used in early cases. There are some people that shouldn't use it, such as those with heart problems, but it's a safer drug than the media made it out to be.
I think there may be a debate brewing between HCQ and Remdesivir. After all HCQ is a generic drug and Remdesivir is fairly expensive (the last price I saw was $2500). However, I think both drugs have a role to play. HCQ should be used for patients in the early stages of the disease while Remdesivir could be used for people that have not improved on that drug, can't take it for some reason or who are already in a critical state. It would be pretty dumb to not use both drugs if it means saving lives, and if I was sick I wouldn't have a problem with my doctor prescribing either one.
Even though Coronavirus is back in the news in the United States for an explosion of new infections, the number of deaths is actually decreasing. I think medical treatment is a large reason for this. We know a lot more about the disease now and we are finding what treatments work and what treatments do not. Neither HCQ or Remdesivir are silver bullet miracle drugs but I think the fact that we have any drugs that seem to work at all is a very good sign and may be one of the reasons, along with better practices with other treatments, may be why the death rate is falling.
Does this vindicate President Trump, as he was a big cheerleader for hydroxychloroquine? I think it may do so soon. Remember, Trump didn't just promote HCQ, he promoted Remdesivir as well, but the media decided to attack HCQ for no good reason. I think this study is evidence that this whole thing was just another case of Trump derangement syndrome.
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