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(CNN) – Hydroxychloroquine does not work in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, according to research published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It is the latest of several studies to find that the antimalarial does not work against the coronavirus.
“These findings do not support the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 among hospitalized adults,” wrote Dr. Wesley Self, of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and colleagues.
The randomized trial enrolled 479 COVID-19 patients in 34 US hospitals with respiratory diseases. Some received hydroxychloroquine and others received a placebo.
The results found strong evidence that hydroxychloroquine is “not beneficial” for adults hospitalized with COVID-19, and “there is no significant difference between the hydroxychloroquine and placebo groups.”
The trial had several limitations, including that it only included hospitalized adults and only one dose level of hydroxychloroquine. It did not consider whether the patients were using other therapies, such as azithromycin, zinc or remdesivir.
In a corresponding JAMA editorial, Dr. Michael Saag, a researcher in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, noted President Donald Trump’s initial support for hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, writing that politicization it was an important factor in promoting the use of the drug.
“The clear, unequivocal, and compelling lesson from the hydroxychloroquine story for the medical community and the public is that science and politics don’t mix,” Saag wrote. “The number of articles in the peer-reviewed literature over the past few months that have consistently and convincingly demonstrated the ineffectiveness of a highly publicized ‘cure’ for COVID-19 represent the consequence of the irresponsible infusion of politics into the world of scientific evidence and discourse “.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine on March 28 after a big push from Trump and his administration, but revoked it on June 15.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “New Study Finds Hydroxychloroquine Doesn’t Work for Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients”
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