Hydroxychloroquine not approved to treat COVID-19

Pushing a malaria drug

The Trump Administration has touted hydroxychloroquine to treat patients with COVID-19, despite a paucity of scientific evidence that it’s an effective treatment. The drug, hydroxychloroquine, is a popular malaria and lupus treatment.

The Trump administration continues to cite small unscientific studies in China and France as evidence that hydroxychloroquine helps treat COVID-19 patients. The most recent study came from China and found that the anti-malaria drug helped speed the recovery of a small number of patients who were mildly or moderately ill, though notes that the evidence is limited.

The report anecdotal findings from China and France revealed that virus symptoms of cough, fever and pneumonia went away faster and that patients’ illness were less likely to become severe after administering hydroxychloroquine.

The FDA has not approved hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, though it has granted it limited emergency-use authorization. But medical experts warn that reports of the drug’s benefits for COVID-19 patients are anecdotal and small-scale. And, there is little scientific evidence that proves it efficacy against the coronavirus.

Medical experts warn of hydroxychloroquine potentially severe side effects, which can include impaired vision, hearing loss, paranoia and cardiac arrhythmias, which could be fatal for patients with heart problems or who are taking certain antidepressants. “It is not like water. It is not harmless,” one emergency-room doctor and research scientist said.

The administration’s touting of chloroquine has already created a shortage, making it unavailable for some patients with existing prescriptions for the drug.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has repeatedly said it’s too soon to say if the drug would be effective against COVID-19.

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