It is Clear that Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine are Currently Used to Treat Covid 19 in the USA
Patient privacy prevents precise calculation of the fraction of Covid 19 patients in the USA being treated with Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine. However, Hospitals are purchasing hugely increased amounts
Christopher Rowland reports.
Data gathered in the first 17 days of March by Premier Inc., a large group purchasing organization for 4,000 U.S. hospitals, showed a 300 percent week-over-week increase in orders of chloroquine and a 70 percent week-over-week boost in orders of hydroxychloroquine.
I think that, because of the association with Trump, this is presented as a bad thing. Certainly there is a problem of short supplies. Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat Lupus Erythematosus and Rhumatoid Arthritis and those people have trouble making sure they get their medicine, because of the sudden new demand.
The article begins with the odd reference to the FDA as if the FDA regulated off label prescription of drugs. The only legal effect of an FDA finding that the drugs work when treating Covid 19 is that manufacturers would then be allowed to claim this in advertisements. This is extremely irrelevant. The drugs are off patent and produced by many firms — there are no huge profit margins there. Also the free publicity dwarfs any possible ad campaign. The FDA has no relevant authority here.
It seems that there is an idea among many people that doctors shouldn’t do anything unless it is proven to work in a clinical trial. I recall (but can’t find) and article in which Dr Arnold Relman (editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and pretty much head of the medical establishment) denounced this. Waiting for clinical trials is a decision. It is a decision which has caused deaths. There is no option to stop the clock while the trial progresses. Patients who could benefit from or be harmed by novel treatments exist.
The idea that the practice of medicine should be vaguely like the approval of pharmaceuticals is definitely new. I am 100% sure that the main driver is fear of malpractice suits. It is very necessary to have an official published standard of care — following this standard is the only protection against malpractice suits when outcomes are bad &, you know, we all end up dead in the end.
But doctors must practice also when there is no standard (that is no committee of respected doctors is willing to take the moral not legal responsibility of drafting one). Obviously there is no standard of care for Covid 19. Also obviously many doctors are sensible enough to look at the balance of evidence in the absense of proof and make decisions which they believe are best for the patient in the absence of certain knowledge and knowing that they might regret the decision with the benefit of hindsight.
I don’t understand why official talk about medical care is so different from the current actual practice. I think it is partly about practical action vs scientific research. In scientific research it is perfectly fine to have open questions. If there is a patient on the edge of death, it is necessary to decide now.
But I am more confident than I was that small c conservatism is not killing as many people in the USA as it might.
To your point:
There are others I have found also and this is but one place amongst them.
Chloroquine May Fight Covid-19—and Silicon Valley’s Into It
“Not only is it already available, as it has been for almost a century, but Covid-19 patients are already getting it. Montefiore Medical Center in New York has already started seeing the surge of Covid-19 patients that public health experts have been warning about. The hospital is participating in the remdesivir trial and is giving Covid-19 patients chloroquine. “All of our patients get put on chloroquine, as well as on antiretrovirals. We’re using Kaletra. Different places are using different antiretrovirals,” says Liise-anne Pirofski, chief of infectious diseases at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore. “Everybody gets that, unless they have some contraindication.”
And, according to Axios, the pharmaceutical company Bayer is getting ready to donate some large amount of the drug to the US—unclear what agency, though Axios cites an anonymous source at the Department of Health and Human Services—for use against Covid-19.”
Markets are talking about it. If a COVID-19 Therapy Doesn’t Benefit a Stock, Does it Even Exist?
The Swiss are hard hit also: Coronavirus: the situation in Switzerland
Thanks. I remember reading a tweet with chloroquine and montefiore in it. I guess I could have googled. Thanks
Robert:
As you stated, doctors prescribe off label. My daughter the soon to be NP was aware of it also. She is at University of Colorado hospital. Denver just shut down.
Keep talking to s about Italy. People here are still out and about doing normal things even though Michigan Governor Whitmer shut the state down. Police are not doing anything.