| The odds of success for President Donald Trump’s favored coronavirus treatment keep getting longer. On Tuesday, it was the U.S. government that erected new obstacles.
First, a panel of medical experts assembled by the National Institutes of Health recommended against using hydroxychloroquine, a malaria treatment, in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin to treat Covid-19. Though a few small, early studies raised hopes that the drug could help patients fight off coronavirus infections, hydroxychloroquine can also cause heart issues. Doctors, pharmacy experts and government researchers and officials advising NIH warned that taking the two potent medications together could lead to harm.
Trump had touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential “game-changer” in spite of the scant scientific evidence to support his claims. Dozens of other therapies are also being explored for treating the coronavirus, but Trump’s backing for the malaria drug has made it a cause celebre among his most ardent supporters. Some doctors have taken it as a prophylactic to ward off the disease, and hospitals have rushed to stockpile it. That’s left patients who need hydroxychloroquine to treat chronic diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis searching for alternatives.
The second blow to hydroxychloroquine was delivered by an analysis of 368 patients from the Veterans Administration that looked at how people with Covid-19 fared after getting the standard of care, hydroxychloroquine alone, or the combination. In that study, which hasn’t yet been published or subjected to peer review, patients who got hydroxychloroquine alone had a higher death rate than those not getting it.
There is a long way to go. Other studies of the drug are continuing around the world. But the results so far underline how slippery science can be, most especially when the immediate health hopes of millions of people—and the political fortunes of a potential cure’s most enthusiastic partisans—are riding on it.—Tim Annett |