‘Could be a lifesaver for patients’ if used ‘in the right settings…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headliness) A new study found that the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine has, in fact, helped coronavirus patients survive in the hospital.
A team at Henry Ford Health System in Michigan announced on Thursday that its study of 2,541 hospitalized patients found that patients who were given hydroxychloroquine treatments were much less likely to die from the virus.
About 26% of patients not given hydroxychloroquine died, according to Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of infectious disease for Henry Ford, while only 13% who did receive the drug died.
Similar studies have found no perceived benefits from hydroxychloroquine, but this study confirms the anecdotal experiences of doctors and COVID-19 patients across the country who argued that the drug did help the fight against the coronavirus.
President Trump claimed as much back in March, and was largely ridiculed by the mainstream media for it.
When asked why the results of this study are different from those that have found no benefits, Zervos said that unlike the other studies, his researchers began keeping track of hydroxychloroquine and its effects on the virus back in early March. And they found that the drug helps interfere with the virus directly while reducing inflammation in the lungs.
“Our results do differ from some other studies,” Zervos said on Thursday. “What we think was important in ours is that patients were treated early. For hydroxychloroquine to have a benefit, it needs to begin before the patients begin to suffer some of the severe immune reactions that patients can have with COVID.”
Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO of the Henry Ford Medical Group, said that hydroxychloroquine “could be a lifesaver for patients” if used “in the right settings.”
“This is a big deal,” Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, told CNN. “This medicine can literally save tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of American lives and maybe millions of people worldwide.”