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Trump’s obsession with hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19

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GRALISTAIR

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I remember a chart in National Geographic a few years back showing health spending per person across the X-axis and life expectancy (or some other metric of health outcome) up the Y. Not surprisingly the dots for different countries were clustered up the diagonal, except for the US out on its own in the bottom right corner.

The biggest problem in the USA imho, is the horrible levels of obesity which brings all the other problems including the not as good as it should be life expectancy.
 
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RichT54

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The original french study that claimed that hydroxychloroquine was effective against Covid-19 was widely criticised (except by Trump and his media cronies) for not following the correct procedures for a proper clinical investigation. Has there been any subsequent properly conducted trial that would justify for its use?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/hydroxychloroquine-trump-coronavirus-drug

The gold standard for a clinical trial is a double-blinded, randomized controlled trial (RCT). What this means in plain English is that the study has been designed to reduce biases that would render its results meaningless. Neither the physician nor the patients knows whether they received the drug (“double-blinded”), a safeguard that reduces the possibility that the doctor will treat the two groups differently. The researchers also do not get to choose which patients go into which group (“randomized”) and the makeup of the two groups is roughly equivalent (“controlled”).

The French hydroxychloroquine study did not follow any of these rules.
 

BlueFox

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I have IBS and can only buy Loperamide in packs of 6, (cheapest is in Tesco and Sainsbury's, £1.15),

Have you tried Home Bargains?
They always used to be cheaper than supermarkets, they were 59p the last time I bought some, which was last year.
 

Bletchleyite

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RichT54

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Reuters are reporting that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed from its website highly unusual guidance informing doctors on how to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.

The move comes three days after Reuters reported that the CDC published key dosing information involving the two antimalarial drugs based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.

Reuters also reported that the original guidance was crafted by the CDC after President Trump personally pressed federal regulatory and health officials to make the malaria drugs more widely available to treat the novel coronavirus, though the drugs in question had been untested for COVID-19.

Initially, the CDC webpage, titled Information for Clinicians on Therapeutic Options for Patients with COVID-19, had said: “Although optimal dosing and duration of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 are unknown, some U.S. clinicians have reported anecdotally” on several ways to prescribe the medication of COVID-19.

Medical specialists had told Reuters they were surprised by that language. “Why would CDC be publishing anecdotes?” asked Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. “That doesn’t make sense. This is very unusual.”

Doctors and other health experts had further criticized the guidance as suggesting that doctors might prescribe the medications when it isn’t established whether or not they are effective or harmful.

Now the CDC website no longer includes that information. Instead, its first sentence says: “There are no drugs or other therapeutics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to prevent or treat COVID-19.”

The updated, and shortened, guidance adds that “Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are under investigation in clinical trials” for use on coronavirus patients.

Donald won't be happy!
 

SteveP29

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You need to go to a major supermarket in Scotland just to witness the "wall of orange" of an entire aisle of Irn Bru! :)

I've lived in Edinburgh for 8 years, I've seen them many many many many times :D

Have you tried Home Bargains?
They always used to be cheaper than supermarkets, they were 59p the last time I bought some, which was last year.

Thanks for the tip, there's one 10 minutes walk from ours, I'll have a look next time we're there (subject to relaxation of Covid 19 restrictions)
 

Cowley

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We’d got somewhat off topic with this discussion so I’ve split some posts off into a new thread which is here:

 

Jozhua

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Hydrocloroquine is effective in not only Malaria, but also for autoimmune diseases like Lupus as it dampens an individuals immune response due to the way it binds to certain cells.

The likelihood of it actually killing the Coronavirus is incredibly small, however it could help with the cytokine storm induced by viral infections. This is where essentially in response to an infection, the body goes overboard and starts attacking its own cells, causing massive inflammation and potentially death.

So looking into how many patients have COVID-19 induced cytokine storms would be a good start to seeing if the medication would be of help. Now obviously it dampens the immune system, so it could do significantly more harm than good if prescribed wrongly.

I think it might be useful in a certain number of cases where cytokine storm can be identified in the patient, allowing doctors to bring inflammation under control. However, as a cure-all for Coronavirus, I highly doubt it.
 

Requeststop

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Captain Trump of the Titanic:

There isn't any iceberg.
There was an iceberg but it's in a totally different ocean.
The iceberg is in this ocean but it will melt very soon.
There is an iceberg but we didn't hit the iceberg.
We hit the iceberg, but the damage will be repaired very shortly.
The iceberg is a Chinese iceberg.
We are taking on water but every passenger who wants a lifeboat can get a lifeboat, and they are beautiful lifeboats. Look, passengers need to ask nicely for the lifeboats if they want them.
We don't have any lifeboats, we're not lifeboat distributors.
Passengers should have planned for icebergs and brought their own lifeboats.
I really don't think we need that many lifeboats.
We have lifeboats and they're supposed to be our lifeboats, not the passengers' lifeboats.
The lifeboats were left on shore by the last captain of this ship.
Nobody could have foreseen the iceberg.

God Help us all and praise god that we don't have to vote for an idiot President to represent our nation.
 
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