To those grasping the straws of the hydroxychloroquine red herring, as advanced by 1 Yale faculty member...
A renewed focus on hydroxychloroquine wastes time and risks lives, 24 Yale faculty members say
A renewed focus on the potential use of the malarial drug
hydroxychloroquine is taking time and resources away from the search for something that actually does work to help coronavirus patients and may end up costing lives, two dozen Yale University researchers said Tuesday.
Yale cancer epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch launched a new round of headlines when he wrote a commentary in Newsweek last month calling for renewed research on hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus, despite multiple studies showing it doesn’t help and might harm patients, and decisions by the US Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization to stop further testing.
The White House, which had promoted the drug, was encouraged to renew its lobbying for the drug, even as coronavirus task force members, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and Adm. Brett Giroir, all said repeatedly the drug does not work and should be dropped.
“We write with grave concern that too many are being distracted by the ardent advocacy of our Yale colleague, Dr. Harvey Risch, to promote the assertion that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) when given with antibiotics is effective in treating COVID-19, in particular as an early therapeutic intervention for the disease,” the 24 Yale staffers wrote in an open letter posted on Medium. “As his colleagues, we defend the right of Dr. Risch, a respected cancer epidemiologist, to voice his opinions. But he is not an expert in infectious disease epidemiology and he has not been swayed by the body of scientific evidence from rigorously conducted clinical trials, which refute the plausibility of his belief and arguments."
The Yale researchers said they all want the same thing: an effective treatment for coronavirus. But they said heavy pursuit of hydroxychloroquine took up resources that could be used elsewhere.
“The continuing advocacy on behalf of HCQ distracts us from advancing the science on Covid-19 and seeking more effective interventions in a time when more than 1,000 people are dying per day of this disease,” they wrote.
