Study shows more deaths
The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine wasn’t effective in keeping people with coronavirus from needed mechanical ventilation, according to a study of 368 patients in US veterans hospitals.
This wasn’t a blind test but here are the numbers, via AP:
Researchers analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at Veterans Health Administration medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11.
About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. About 22% of those getting the drug plus azithromycin died too, but the difference between that group and usual care was not considered large enough to rule out other factors that could have affected survival.
The upshot here could be that only cases that were particularly bad were given the drug, so the sample is biased. That said, it didn’t work.
Full-scale studies are coming in the days ahead.