A small white tablet remains a debatable touchstone in an ongoing debate about possible remedies for COVID-19.
The Henry Ford Health System has published an open letter about a letter published in July that hydroxychloroquine reduces the mortality rate by 50% in some patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Stating that “the political climate that persisted caused an objective discussion about this drug,” the Henry Ford Health System stated in the letter that it would no longer comment outside the medical network on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the new disease. Coronavirus.
“We are deeply saddened by this event,” the letter, signed Saturday by Dr. Adnan Munkarah, Henry Ford’s executive vice president and chief clinical director, and Dr. Steven Kalkanis, senior vice president and education director.
“Like all observational research, these studies are very difficult to analyze and can never complete the biases inherent in the way doctors make other decisions to treat other patients. Moreover, it is not uncommon for the effects of these studies to spread across the population and other times, and no examination can ever be thought of as if you were alone.”
The peer-reviewed study, published on July 2 in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, contradicts other published reports that the drug, commonly used to treat malaria and lupus, has no advantages for patients with coronavirus and would possibly harm some. Ford’s exam was criticized by many in the medical network as an atypical value because it is observational, retrospective, and not randomized or controlled.
The letter comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called Henry Ford’s exam flawed in his testimony Friday at a Congressional hearing on the federal government’s efforts to combat the pandemic.
“The Henry Ford Hospital StudyArray … baffled through a number of problems, adding the fact that many other people who obtain hydroxychloroquine were also receiving corticosteroids, which, according to another study, provides a transparent merit in reducing deaths to a complex level of the disease.” Fauci said.
“This test is therefore an examination. Matrix… When I see a randomized placebo-controlled trial that examines any facet of hydroxychloroquine (early, intermediate, or expired examination), if this randomized placebo-controlled trial shows its effectiveness, I would be the first to admit and publicize it.
“I haven’t noticed a randomized placebo-controlled trial that did this yet. And, in fact, each and every randomized placebo-controlled trial that tested it showed no efficacy. So I have to settle for the data. I’m not doing it. Have any horse in the game one way or another. I’m just on the data.”
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President Donald Trump has continually promoted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus, speaking at the White House Coronavirus Working Group briefings in April and May, despite a lack of studies supporting his claims.
He said earlier this year that he was taking the drug, hoping that it would save him from contracting the virus.
Trump tweeted on July 6: “The highly reputed Henry Ford Health System has just reported, based on extensive sampling, that HYDROXYCLOROQUINA has particularly reduced the mortality rate of some ill-health patients. Democrats denigrated him for political reasons (me!). Embarrassing. Act now “
People who use hydroxychloroquine for the autoimmune disease remedy have complained that Trump’s praise of the drug to prevent or help others fight coronavirus has put the drug first and have found it difficult to fill their prescriptions.
On June 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat patients hospitalized by COVID-19 who are part of a clinical trial.
The World Health Organization also issued a report on hydroxychloroquine, saying it was also abandoning drug testing for patients hospitalized with coronavirus, saying that there was “little or no relief in the mortality of patients hospitalized by COVID-19 compared to popular care”, but that there were protective concerns.
The Henry Ford Health System is conducting other hydroxychloroquine studies that was announced in April in collaboration with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. This is the first large-scale U.S. exam. To determine whether the use of the drug can save you from coronavirus in 3,000 physical care staff and lifeguards.
The effects of these studies have still been published.
Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.