Scientists lament Trump’s embrace of risky malaria drugs

[NUance]

‘This is insane!’ Many scientists lament Trump’s embrace of risky malaria drugs for coronavirus
By Charles PillerMar. 26, 2020 , 11:30 AM     www.sciencemag.org

 

When President Donald Trump recently touted the common malaria treatments hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as potential remedies for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), he ignited unprecedented demand for the drugs—and set scientists’ teeth on edge.  

 

And many are critical of the small French clinical study of just 42 patients that seems to have touched off most of the excitement.

 

“The president was talking about hope,” Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said diplomatically at one of the White House briefings where Trump praised the drugs’ potential.

 

Others are less diplomatic. Darren Dahly, a co-author of one of several critiques of the initial study and a principal statistician at the University College Cork School of Public Health, said it would be “egregious” to recommend treatments for millions of people based on such a small trial, regardless of its quality. “This is insane!” tweeted Gaetan Burgio, an Australian National University expert on drug resistance, noting what he sees as lapses in the 6-day trial, including inconsistent testing of virus levels in the patients.

 

LINK  

 

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When I read this it sounds like scientists and journalist alike are condemning Trump for suggesting malaria drugs.   

 

 

[NUance]

But then I read this:  

 

All that hilariously misguided and counterproductive criticism the media piled on chloroquine (purely for political reasons) as a viable treatment will now go down as the biggest Fake News blunder to rule them all. The media actively engaged their activism to fight ‘bad orange man’ at the cost of thousands of lives. Shame on them.  LINK

 

====================================================  

 

So ... what is the truth?  

[knapplc]

1 hour ago, NUance said:

But then I read this:  

 

All that hilariously misguided and counterproductive criticism the media piled on chloroquine (purely for political reasons) as a viable treatment will now go down as the biggest Fake News blunder to rule them all. The media actively engaged their activism to fight ‘bad orange man’ at the cost of thousands of lives. Shame on them.  LINK

 

====================================================  

 

So ... what is the truth?  

 

This is an article from Medium, where anyone can post anything and there's no fact-checking. The author is "libertymavenstock." The link is from the Wayback Machine even though it was just written last week. The article itself is already deleted.

 

The article cites no sources.

The author claims to have no medical/biological expertise.

No studies have been cited, methods are not provided, so it's impossible to check.

 

And one of the final paragraphs says, "No longer can the media and armchair pseudo-physicians sit in their little ivory towers, proclaiming “DUR so stoopid, malaria is bacteria, COVID-19 is virus, anti-bacteria drug no work on virus!”"

 

This sounds like the kind of thing people would want to believe, so someone writes it up under a pseudonym.

 

1 hour ago, NUance said:

When I read this it sounds like scientists and journalist alike are condemning Trump for suggesting malaria drugs.   

 

They should. Trump is possibly the least-qualified person to be touting some random drug. He, also, has no medical or biological expertise. The person closest to him with that expertise, Dr. Fauci, has repeatedly warned that there is no medical evidence that hydroxychloroquine is effective against Covid-19.

 

Trump has urged people dozens of times to take this untested drug. Why?

 

---

 

Edit for more info:

 

There is no other readily-available post of any kind on any site by the person named "libertymavenstock." That alone should be a big red flag, aside from being posted on Medium, then deleted, and only available through Wayback.

 

Actual scientists using the best available testing, publishing under their real names, cite the evidence about these drugs:

 

Quote

Small Trial Suggests Antimalarial Drugs Not Effective For Treating Coronavirus

KATHERINE SELEY-RADTKE

 

On Saturday the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of two antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and a related medication, chloroquine, for emergency use to treat COVID-19. The drugs were touted by President Trump as a "game changer" for COVID-19.

 

However, a study just published in a French medical journal provides new evidence that hydroxychloroquine does not appear to help the immune system clear the coronavirus from the body.

 

The study comes on the heels of two others - one in France and one in China - that reported some benefits in the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for COVID-19 patients who didn't have severe symptoms of the virus.

 

I am a medicinal chemist who has specialized in discovery and development of antiviral drugs for the past 30 years, and I have been actively working on coronaviruses for the past seven.

 

I am among a number of researchers who are concerned that this drug has been given too much of a high priority before there is enough evidence to show it is indeed effective.

 

 

 

 

[TGHusker]

Me thinks there is a money connection between Trump and the drug.  He's pushing it like his financial world depends on it.

[commando]

7 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

Me thinks there is a money connection between Trump and the drug.  He's pushing it like his financial world depends on it.

magic 8-ball says....you bet your a$$ he does.

[NUance]

Where I'm at right now:  Some articles say the anti-malaria drug touted by Trump is effective.  Other articles say  it's not.  Some even say Trump is profiteering from it.  I'm no doctor.  I don't know which side it right.  

 

But I do think the truth of this matter will be determined shortly.  It will be interesting to then see the reaction of the other side.    

[BigRedBuster]

I really really wish a reporter would ask Trump, "Could you please state for the record, what your education and qualifications are to be able to make a recommendation on medical and pharmaceutical treatments?

[funhusker]

13 minutes ago, NUance said:

Where I'm at right now:  Some articles say the anti-malaria drug touted by Trump is effective.  Other articles say  it's not.  Some even say Trump is profiteering from it.  I'm no doctor.  I don't know which side it right.  

 

But I do think the truth of this matter will be determined shortly.  It will be interesting to then see the reaction of the other side.    

No "side" is saying the drug is absolutely ineffective and it shouldn't be used because it's pointless.

 

One "side" is cautioning about using drugs willy-nilly based on hope and anecdotal evidence.

One "side" is throwing a hailmary because they are approaching with the attitude "it can't get any worse..."

 

The debate is over the process, not the possible effectiveness.

[knapplc]

17 minutes ago, NUance said:

Where I'm at right now:  Some articles say the anti-malaria drug touted by Trump is effective.  Other articles say  it's not.  Some even say Trump is profiteering from it.  I'm no doctor.  I don't know which side it right.  

 

But I do think the truth of this matter will be determined shortly.  It will be interesting to then see the reaction of the other side.    

 

There are zero peer-reviewed, reputable articles that say chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine are effective against Covid.

 

The article I linked has some pretty good discussion about some studies - none of which have proven anything. Several studies have been dropped because of deleterious side effects - notably in France.

 

Everyone wants this to be over. What we don't need is false hope. Because once that hope is proven to be false, then what?

[DevoHusker]

This highly respected physician (just ask Fox News)  thinks it's a great tool to combat the virus:

 

https://www.doctoroz.com/

 

 

[Danny Bateman]

2 hours ago, NUance said:

Where I'm at right now:  Some articles say the anti-malaria drug touted by Trump is effective.  Other articles say  it's not.  Some even say Trump is profiteering from it.  I'm no doctor.  I don't know which side it right.  

 

But I do think the truth of this matter will be determined shortly.  It will be interesting to then see the reaction of the other side.    

 

No, it probably won't. Reputable studies, of which we'll need several to conclusively determine these drugs significantly improve Covid symptoms, will take a while to set up and carry out.

 

To the extent there are sides here, it's Trump vs. most of the medical community (of which I am a small part). From my perspective, Trump might not like it, but this is how drug approval works: You can't just mass-prescribe drugs off-label based on anecdotal evidence without rigorous scientific evidence they work.

 

An ancillary reason we can't just mass-prescribe these on a whim is because we actually have proof that they work to treat autoimmune disorders like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis and these people are seriously worried they won't get the drugs they need.

[commando]

trump confounds the science.  always has and always will.

[Danny Bateman]

Anybody else notice that Trump isn't touting these drugs so doggedly anymore? There's a reason.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Tom Hanks said his wife, Rita Wilson, was given hydroxycloroquine in Australia, as a treatment for COVID-19.  Wilson reacted with severe nausea, and it was so bad she couldn't walk, at times.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/entertainment/tom-hanks-coronavirus-interview-trnd/index.html

 

 

[Danny Bateman]

It really begs the question: Why was Trump so gung-ho on the drug(s) in the first place?

 

I don't really buy the theories about him benefiting financially from the drugs as from what I recall his holdings in the companies that manufactures the drug are pretty minimal.

 

IMO it's most likely that he absolutely refuses to accept when he's wrong on something and digs his heels in like a petulant child.