Free Republic

Once an obscure and highly technical term, it first entered common parlance when, in mid-March, President Trump suggested hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Physicians and scientists said that randomized controlled trials involving the drug would be needed before we could know whether it was an effective treatment. More recently, media coverage of a possible coronavirus vaccine has often mentioned the term, noting that vaccines must go through such trials before the Food and Drug Administration will approve them. Indeed, it has become prominent in the news since the pandemic began. Typing the term into the search engine Google...

The persisting political climate has made any objective discussion about hydroxychloroquine "impossible," two Henry Ford Health System executives wrote in an open letter dated Aug. 3. Adnan Munkarah, MD, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at the Detroit-based system, along with Steven Kalkanis, MD, senior vice president and chief academic officer for Henry Ford, penned the letter in response to comments by Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that their study on hydroxychloroquine was "flawed." The situation is a bellwether for the kind of tension other systems may face when their clinical...

According to new research published in the preprint server medRxiv* in July 2020, the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) among outpatients in clinical trials, without high-risk factors for cardiac arrhythmia, is safe, with gastrointestinal side-effects being the most common side effects and no fatal adverse outcomes. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues all around the world, with over 630,000 deaths so far, scientific research has focused on finding effective medications against the virus. A strong contender, right from the very beginning, has been HCQ, mainly because of the heavy backing given by political heavyweights. Positive Profile, Negative Side Effects HCQ has been...

A medical institute in Australia will administer a trial at hospitals across the country to determine if the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine can prevent the spread of coronavirus. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research is spearheading the study on frontline workers in an effort to find a preventative measure to stop the spread of the virus. “The trial is focused on our frontline and allied healthcare workers who are at an increased risk of infection due to repeated exposure caring for sick patients,” said Professor Ian Wicks, joint head of clinical translation at the Institute.

The politicization of hydroxychloroquine has been one of the most frustrating aspects of Trump Derangement Syndrome during this pandemic. Early studies in France and clinical outcomes from multiple treating physicians using a combination therapy that included the drug provided hope to combat the virus. However, it made President Trump hopeful, so it had to be obliterated. Crappy studies of the drug given to the most severe patients were touted as proof the president was wrong. Then there was Fish Tank Cleaner Gate. This is the problem with political reporters covering press briefings about a pandemic. They either aren’t provided an...

A clinical trial is underway at major New York hospitals to test the efficacy of heartburn medication, in combination with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, on coronavirus patients, The Post has learned. More than 150 people so far are taking part in the study, which began earlier this month and is being conducted by the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of Northwell Health, according to a spokesman for the hospital system. Researchers are trying to find out whether famotidine — the active compound in the over-the-counter heartburn drug Pepcid — acts as an inhibitor of COVID-19, similar to...

UCLA is one of seven sites participating in a clinical trial investigating whether hydroxychloroquine, a commonly used anti-malarial and autoimmune drug, can prevent infection with COVID-19. The multi-site study led by the University of Washington in collaboration with six other university centers, is now enrolling 2,000 participants who are close contacts of persons who are confirmed or suspected to be infected with COVID-19. The aim is to determine whether hydroxychloroquine can prevent infection in people exposed to the virus. "There has been a lot of speculation as to whether hydroxychloroquine can treat or prevent COVID-19," said Dr. Raphael J. Landovitz,...

A new clinical treatment trial launched Friday and UW Medicine researchers are looking for COVID-19 patients to test the effectiveness of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. UW researchers want to enroll 630 people who currently have the COVID-19 virus. Researchers say this particular study looks at COVID-19 patients who do not need to go to the hospital yet. Researchers are testing two combinations. One is hydroxychloroquine. The other is hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin. Researchers are also using a placebo. UW Medicine is looking for patients in cities nationwide including Boston, Chicago, and New York.

NEWS RELEASE A clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of adults hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun, with the first participants now enrolled in Tennessee. The Outcomes Related to COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine among In-patients with symptomatic Disease study, or ORCHID Study, is being conducted by the Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) Clinical Trials Network of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The first participants have enrolled in the trial at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, one of...

Hydroxychloroquine, which is usually used to treat malaria, has been championed by President Trump for the treatment of COVID-19. But doctors say it's too early to be sure, and small studies have had mixed results. Dr. Wesley Self at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is leading a clinical trial to see if it really works. "Hydroxychloroquine may help prevent the virus from entering cells in the body and therefore prevent it from replicating more or growing within the body," Self explained. Tisha Holt, 42, is one of the first people who enrolled. She's been in the Vanderbilt ICU for four days....

Researchers are working as quickly as science will allow to determine whether hydroxychloroquine, a decades-old malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a potential “game changer” in curtailing the Covid-19 pandemic, is effective in fighting the coronavirus. Federal health regulators have fast-tracked approvals for coronavirus research, allowing scientists across the nation to skip through months of red tape on potential treatments and vaccines for the deadly virus. On March 24, researchers at NYU Langone launched one of the nation’s largest hydroxychloroquine studies and enrolled their first patient 10 days later. It’s one of more than a dozen formal studies...