Murderous Idiocy

Derek Lowe in his Science Magazine blog asks the obvious question. Why the hell are we still conducting trials of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 and why are doctors giving it to people. The verdict is in. It doesn ' t work. On the contrary, it kills people. He discusses this paper inThe Lancet which is a retrospective observational study -- yes, yes, not a randomized controlled trial but quite compelling:[W]hen compared with mortality in the control group [i.e., people hospitalized with Covid-19 who did not receive HCQ] (9 ·3%), hydroxychloroquine (18·0%; hazard ratio 1·335, 95% CI 1·223–1·457), hydroxychloroquine with a macrolide (23·8%; 1·447, 1·368–1·531), chloroquine (16·4%; 1·365, 1·218–1·531), and chloroquine with a macrolide (22·2%; 1·368, 1·273–1·469) were each independently associ ated with an increased risk of in-hospital mortality.They controlled for age, sex, race or ethnicity, body-mass index, underlying cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, diabetes, underlying lung disease, smoking, immunosuppressed condition, and baseline disease severity, meaning they largely eliminated the problem of confounding by indication. And mortality for patients given the drug nearly doubled. It literally killed 9% of the people who took it. And there are plenty of other studies that show no benefit and definite harm.So why did the federal government buy up mass quantities of this drug, give it to veterans, andpush it on public health authorities? And...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs