Hydroxy hysteria and politics ended HCQ use: Donald Trump adviser

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NEW YORK: A top adviser to US President Donald Trump has blamed the politicisation of COVID-19 treatment and a "hydroxy hysteria" fueled by the "mainstream media" for the discontinuation of hydroxychloroquine's (HCQ) use. The official, Peter Navarro, cited on Tuesday a study of 2,451 patients by doctors in Detroit that showed that early use of HCQ reduced the death rates of hospitalised patients by half and said, "This has become a highly politicised (matter), but India uses this widely (as) prophylaxis. There's a number of studies which point to this actually working."

Mentioning the study, Trump tweeted on Monday, "The Dems disparaged it for political reasons (me!). Disgraceful." India sent over 50 million doses of HCQ to the US at the request of Trump, who has advocated its use and even took it for some time as a preventive against the disease.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) National Task Force on COVID-19 has recommended that healthcare workers and others caring for coronavirus patients use HCQ as a preventive.

There was opposition to its use in the US by some doctors, many in the media and Democratic Party leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who have called it an unproven remedy. They also cited adverse effects HCQ has on people with heart problems.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has vacillated on HCQ use, stopping trials using it, then reinstating it and again dropping it.

The patients in the study published last week in the International Journal of Infectious disease were, however, screened for heart disease and the medicine worked when it was started early in the disease cycle.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdrew the emergency use authorisation for treating COVID-19 patients mainly because of the heart issue and two studies that said HCQ was not effective.

Navarro, who is the White House director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, told reporters in Washington that the two studies that influenced the FDA decision were flawed because one of them was "poorly designed" and the other was about late-term use when it would not work, unlike the Michigan study of early use. (IANS)

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