Hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine  (drug)
Start	1938
Abbreviation	HCQ
Interest of	• Rick Bright • Marilyn Gladu • Craig Kelly • Martin Landray • Peter McCullough • Karen Whitsett • Zev Zelenko
A generic drug used to alleviate the symptoms of severe COVID-19 cases, with potential to significantly reduce the disease's case fatality rate. At the same time it can cause heart problems if the dosage is too high.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is a drug on the WHO's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system. In 2017, it was the 128^th most commonly prescribed medication in the US with more than five million prescriptions. In 2020 it was increasingly widely used to treat COVID-19. In an event termed "LancetGate", on 22 May 2020 the The Lancet published a study which highlighted risks of using the drug to treat COVID-19 only to retract it on the 5 June, an apparent part of a systematic campaign to undermine its usage. The WHO also cancelled some trials of the drug, citing safety concerns.

COVID-19

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been used worldwide to treat COVID-19 and was found to significantly lower the disease's case fatality rate, especially when given early on. Compared to other drugs that are used to treat the disease it is extremely cheap, which can be an incentive for the pharmaceutical industry to produce studies that other, more expensive drug show better results, or that HCQ is too dangerous.

Safety

Hydroxychloroquine has more than five million prescriptions per year. The successful treatment of COVID-19 with high doses in the early stages was reported to have some significant effect towards a positive outcome. Shortly thereafter concerns were raised about its safety and trials were stopped. High doses of the drug can lead to ventricular fibrillation and eventually cardiac arrest. Other drugs, as well as the age and general health of the patient may influence what the lethal dose is.

Lancetgate

The Lancet ^[When?] "published a report that HCQ caused 35% more deaths due to adverse effects of the drug in another trial". By late May 2020 "140 academics and clinicians around the world have challenged the veracity of that Lancet article". The Lancet withdrew the paper after within 13 days was discovered to have been published by a shell company. The RECOVERY study in the UK also suggested it was dangerous, but involved very high doses that exceeded its dose for other illnesses.

On 4 July 2020, the WHO discontinued a trial involving hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir for hopitalized patients, citing safety concerns.

On 17 June 2020 the WHO stopped a trial on HCQ concluding that "there was no reduction in mortality’ with the drug", but without publishing any data. On the same day, the UK Recovery trial (funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) was also stopped, reaching the same conclusion.

Legal status

In a 23 March 2020 executive order, the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, barred pharmacists from filling prescriptions for chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine as part of clinical trials for COVID-19. In early April 2020 Anthony Fauci opposed the use of either drug as a treatment for severe cases of COVID-19, instead recommending the experimental (and considerably more expensive) remdesivir. By August 2020, with a lot of data showing the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, Jim Hoft was calling for Fauci's arrest.

Challenge

In June 2020 the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons filed a lawsuit against Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA for their “irrational interference” to hydroxychloroquine for treatment of patients.

Senators Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn explicitly asking about the agency’s handling of information regarding hydroxychloroquine and its use to treat COVID-19.