Hacker News Reader

Comment by mhandley | Hacker News Reader

The same group that conducted this Dexmathasone study concluded that hydroxychloroquine is ineffective: https://www.recoverytrial.net/files/hcq-recovery-statement-0...

"These data convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19."

Note this is not the same group or dataset as the discredited study.

View on HN

To be even more precise, ineffective in hospitalized patients. UMN has done another study for "outpatient" (that is, not hospitalized) treatment and sent the results for review.

I'm not expecting any different results than from this one, but we'll know soon enough.

The RECOVERY study is also studying azithromycin, a drug commonly administered with HCQ when used against this disease. It would be ironic if that one proves to be effective (study is still ongoing).

I have been following both the UMN study and this Recovery Trial. I realize, in between whether HCQ prevents SARS-CoV2 and whether the same helps severe hospitalized cases, we have another question of whether it works as early treatment. The first question seem to have been well answered by Dr Boulware's team. The third one seem to also have been definitively been answered by the Recovery team. However, as yet, other than people taking sides in what has now become something of a religious war, I am yet to come across a study that definitively answers this question of whether HCQ can work when given as early treatment. Most of the Covid-19 related literature that is so far accessible seem to be of a very poor quality. But, still, I am hoping we will have properly conducted and sufficiently powered randomized control trials in due course that should answer most of these questions as well as find out a good way out of this quagmire.

Also been done to some extent: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/06/04/hy...

That study shows nothing. I assume there'll be others along in time.

If they were indeed giving deadly doses of the drug by accident, it’s no wonder they stopped the study cold turkey.

That statement is not correct because it does not take into account the pharmacokinetics of the drug.

See the discussion here[1] (from the person who wrote the open letter to Lancet on the now-retracted HCQ study).

[1] https://twitter.com/jwato_watson/status/1272734274823663616

That’s a helpful link. Thx. Looks like no fatal doses.

But I wasn’t claiming they were doing so. I said “if” intentionally, since I know nothing about it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com