Yale professor : Hydroxychloroquine could have saved 100,000 lives from SARS-CoV-2

Reporter : Li Zhaoxi

Editor : Dongye

Publisher : New Tang Dynasty Television

Ref : https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/07/23/a102900588.html

Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan

                                  / KUCINTA SETIA

Image : On 15 July, a medical worker answered a call in the emergency room of Oakbend Medical Center in Richmond, Texas. The latest model predicts that the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States will further increase. (Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images)

Although some government officials and media questioned the ability of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to fight or resist SARS-CoV-2, many front-line doctors continue to point out that this is a political operation to cover up the drug efficacy. On 21 July, a Yale University professor said that if hydroxychloroquine is widely used to treat the virus, as many as 100,000 lives can be saved.

In an interview with Fox News, Dr. Harvey Risch, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said that if hydroxychloroquine were widely used to treat SARS-CoV-2, 75,000 to 100,000 lives could be saved.

Risch also said that now, it has become a political drug, not a medical drug, which has led to people's ignorance. Most mainstream people do not allow people to talk about the evidence for the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, and the discussion about drugs has become "politics" rather than "medicine."

"When used in outpatient clinics, all the evidence is actually in its favor. Nevertheless, the only people who really say this are a large number of first-line doctors who treat these patients across the country, and they are in danger of doing so. Risch lamented that the "propaganda war" against the use of hydroxychloroquine is being launched for political purposes, not medical facts. The mainstream media also did not report the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.

Now, the reason for political manipulation of the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine is generally considered to be related to Trump's recommendation of the drug. Many clinicians believe that many people oppose Trump's recommended medicine because they oppose Trump. They don't really care whether the medicine is really effective.

President Trump spoke highly of hydroxychloroquine at the beginning of the pandemic. He even revealed in May that he was taking this drug to prevent the Chinese Communist virus.

Opponents claim that there is insufficient evidence for the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, but a recent study published by Henry Ford Health System researchers in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases gave different answers. The study showed that early use of hydroxychloroquine can greatly reduce the mortality of hospitalized patients with the virus SARS-CoV-2, and the use of hydroxychloroquine can reduce the risk ratio by 66%.

The overall mortality rate in the hospital was 18.1%; the mortality rate of patients using only hydroxychloroquine was 13.5%, the mortality rate of patients using only azithromycin was 22.4%, and the mortality rate of patients not using either drug was 26.4%.

The researchers concluded,"In this multi-hospital evaluation, when controlling the risk factors of SARS-CoV-2, the use of hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with azithromycin can reduce the mortality of covid patients."

Risch said that hydroxychloroquine can be used as a "preventive medicine" for frontline workers. Doctors urge the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to consider hydroxychloroquine as an over-the-counter drug.