[blueash]

Originally Posted by merrymini

I believe this will end sooner than media says. [opinion] They always have an axe to grind and it usually does not benefit people. [opinion] Information will leak out from different sources and confirmation will come with consensus. [opinion] These drugs have been peer reviewed in Europe and apparently they work. [now that is stated as a fact]

And here we are again. Somebody has learned the magic words "peer reviewed" And somebody has not provided a link to support the claim that hydroxychlor/zith has been peer reviewed. The French small study has been released online PRIOR TO peer review. It is interesting but it only evaluated the clearance of viral positive testing after patients were give hydroxychloroquine. And there were exclusion criteria that meant certain patients could not be included. And the sickest patients were excluded.
Of the 26 patients given hydroxychl 6 were excluded from the results. 3 because they ended up transferred to the ICU thus were kicked out of the study. A fourth because that patient died. And two dropped out of the study. The control patients were mostly recruited in other hospitals in other cities seemingly. So hardly an ideal control group.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...135v1.full.pdf

So when you read some doctor who apparently wrote a letter to a Fox channel personality claiming that 350 of 350 of his patients were cured.. Firstly it is unlikely any single doctor has 350 Covid positive patients, but not impossible. Secondly if in this study of non-ICU patients 4 of the initial 26 given treatment either died or went to the ICU it is exceedingly unlikely that 0 of 350 would fail. Again to be fair, the published French study was of hydroxychl only on most patients. Only 6 of the 20 reports patients were given zith based on "clinical judgment" which was to prevent "bacterial superinfection". So apparently in only 6 patients was concern about future bacterial superinfection a concern.
You can read the results in this NOT peer reviewed paper. It likely is now undergoing peer review but has not been published as a peer reviewed study. The results are tantalizing and do suggest benefit of Hydroxychloroquine by itself, and greater benefit with the addition of Zithromax. Only 6 people got the combination.
Of the patients in the study only about a third had a diagnosis of bronchitis or pneumonia. 2 treated patients were asymptomatic [it is unclear why they were even swabbed at entry. Perhaps all patients being admitted to that hospital were swabbed regardless of clinical history.] So of the 20 reported treated patients, 14 had nose, throat, or low grade fever only.
Both the WHO and multiple clinical centers are actively studying this combination as well as several different antiviral products. I am hopeful that some individual or combination will be successful. But claims that proof has been established is wrong.

As for the comment that NY Gov Cuomo "approved" of the treatment.. Governors do not have the authority, nor do Presidents, to give medical approval for medical treatments. That is the role of the FDA. Keep in mind that doctors have always given medications beyond what the FDA has formally approved as a usage guideline. The CDC collects data and makes evidence based recommendations. Those recommendations may include use of medications outside the listed indications on the package insert.

A personal opinion about some of the comments about how dangerous hydroxychloroquine is.. It is very safe. The long term use of the medication rarely causes retinal problems. Problems are seen mostly in patients who take it for more than five years and more likely with higher doses. The risk of toxic retinopathy in patients on long-term hydroxychloroquine therapy. - PubMed - NCBI

I cannot find a case of eye complications from a short term use of the drug. Not saying it doesn't exist but no review I read included any short term use patients. The FDA does not even recommend eye exams other than a baseline exam until the patient has been on hydroxychloroquine for 5 years unless they have other risk factors. From the package insert:

For individuals with significant risk factors (daily dose of hydroxychloroquine sulfate greater than 5.0 mg/kg base of actual body weight, subnormal glomerular filtration, use of tamoxifen citrate or concurrent macular disease) monitoring should include annual examinations which include BCVA, VF and SD-OCT. For individuals without significant risk factors, annual exams can usually be deferred until five years of treatment.