08/08/20
More than 100 Americans have died after taking hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 despite Donald Trump insisting people had 'nothing to lose' by trying the unproven drug
More than 100 Americans have died after taking hydroxychloroquine in a misguided effort to treat or prevent coronavirus so far this year, a new report reveals.
In the first six months of 293 people died after taking hydroxychloroquine, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's review of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) adverse events reporting system.
That's compared to just 75 in the first half of 2019.
Much like public health experts use the number of 'excess' deaths to estimate how many people died of coronavirus but have not yet been counted, the Sentinel looked at data on those other 218 deaths.
The reason 'more than half' of those people had been taking hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine was COVID-19.
It comes after the overwhelming majority of big, credible studies on using the malaria drug to treat coronavirus showed - despite Trump's repeated optimism over it - that it offered no benefit to people with the viral infection.
Some of those studies were even stopped short due to concerns over its potential to cause fatal heart arrhythmias, or after the group given the drug began dying at higher rates than those given just supportive care.
When early studies suggested that hydroxychloroquine might have antiviral effects and improve recovery and survival odds for infected people, President Trump raved that it was safe - a conclusion he drew based on the fact that the drug is FDA-approved.
'What do you have to lose?' Trump asked as he encouraged the us of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
The drug is indeed approved by the regulatory body to treat the mosquito-borne disease malaria and autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-COVID-19.html
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