Former president called anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine a ‘miracle cure’

A drug infamously touted by Donald Trump has been linked to nearly 17,000 Covid deaths in a new scientific study.

Researchers say that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was prescribed to patients during the first wave of Covid-19 “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits.”

The French study estimated that 16,990 patients in the US, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Turkey may have died as a result of the drug.

The study has been published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.

Researchers say the data used comes from a study published in the Nature scientific journal, which reported that there was an 11 per cent increase in mortality rate linked to the drug’s prescription.

  • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
    201·
    11 months ago

    To be fair, the 17000 were not even all Americans. 16,990 patients in the US, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Turkey. I too dislike Trump but the world is larger than the US

    • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
      141·
      11 months ago

      We would need to see the breakdown. If it’s 14000 in the US and 3k elsewhere then that’s telling but i don’t see that information listed anywhere.

      Edit: Found it!. It’s about 13K in the US.

      Overall, using median estimates of HCQ use in each country, we estimated that 16,990 HCQ-related in-hospital deaths (range 6267–19256) occurred in the countries with available data. The median number of HCQ-related deaths in Belgium, Turkey, France, Italy, Spain, and the USA was 240 (range not estimable), 95 (range 92–128), 199 (range not estimable), 1822 (range 1170–2063), 1895 (range 1475–2094) and 12739 (3244− 15570), respectively.