There are no definitive test results showing hydroxychloroquine helps coronavirus patients, but the FDA agrees it’s worth trying the medication on certain coronavirus patients. The Emergency Use Authorization reads:
FDA issued an EUA to allow hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to be distributed and used for certain hospitalized patients with COVID-19. These drugs will be distributed from the SNS to states for doctors to prescribe to adolescent and adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, as appropriate
Donald Trump has been pushing the drug for the last week, as a treatment to take along with the antibiotic azithromycin. He mentioned it again during an interview with Fox & Friends:
“Hydroxychloroquine is something that I have been pushing very hard. I think we’re going to have a good idea over the next three days because it’s been used now in New York at my request, 1,100 people. It’s been used. I think that’s better than testing it in a laboratory. But the doctors tell me no.”
Normally drug trials involve testing in a laboratory, but this order puts it into use on patients suffering from coronavirus. The Washington Post adds:
There have only been a few, very small anecdotal studies that show a possible benefit of the drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, to relieve the acute respiratory symptoms of Covid-19 and clear the virus from infected patients.
Regarding hydroxychloroquine, it has not been successful everywhere. There was a controlled study in China showing there was no difference. Also, combining it with Z-pak can cause irregular heartbeat & death in some people.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 30, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine is FDA approved to treat patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Since Trump promoted the drug for coronavirus, patients who have been on the drug for years to treat those conditions are finding it close to impossible to get refills.
