Read on Twitter
1) When the Covid crisis is over, one of the strangest sub-plots will have been the fracas around Hydroxychloroquine. Starting from medical practitioners worldwide adopting its usage in a ‘cargo cult’ way, mimicking what other doctors were doing, to Raoult’s low-quality study…
2) To people in Silicon Valley picking up the idea (notably Elon Musk), then the explosion in the political sphere, from Trump pushing it at the White House podium, to the Indian PM Modi reversing an HCQ export ban for Trump, to French PM Macron talking it up...
3) All the while as it remained unproven for Covid use, while people trying it got hurt by cardiac side-effects (and one couple in a prominent incident mistakenly taking different chemicals with a similar name), & patients with other conditions ran out of HCQ due to shortages…
4) Maybe HCQ will be part of the standard of care for Covid-19 in the future, but it’s seeming less and less likely. Meanwhile it’s definitely not a miracle cure, so the frenzied advocacy and adoption of this medicine will turn out to have been a bizarre story.
5) PS. This is a great caption to this odd clip of Trump breathily saying, "Try it" https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1246817424437108737
6) PPS. This gentleman (apparently a very prestigious scientist, Dr. Haseltine) is very effective in a couple minutes of video in dismissing the potential of HCQ for Covid treatment: https://twitter.com/LisPower1/status/1247233437519536129
7) Related: a prominent preprint server is no longer publishing papers on potential Covid drugs that are early in the validation process https://twitter.com/firasd/status/1250804794022715395
8) The potential for Post-Covid HCQ truthers https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1252781498983276544
9) More HCQ drama today: Raoult dismisses a critic as a 'witchhunter' putting out 'fake news', and Trump admin pushes out a top scientist for focusing on other therapies.
I thought this miracle cure obsession was over; all this is bonkers!
I thought this miracle cure obsession was over; all this is bonkers!
10) Okay I didn't know this part of the story... the way this HCQ idea was lobbed to people like Elon Musk and right-wing media was through some guys coming together on Twitter to write a Google Doc? Jeez...
Image 1 via https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/13/how-false-hope-spread-about-hydroxychloroquine-its-consequences/
Image 2 via https://politico.com/news/2020/04/07/twitter-thread-launched-trump-coronavirus-drug-170557
Image 1 via https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/13/how-false-hope-spread-about-hydroxychloroquine-its-consequences/
Image 2 via https://politico.com/news/2020/04/07/twitter-thread-launched-trump-coronavirus-drug-170557
11) I actually unknowingly had an exchange with one of the people behind that fateful document. He said 'the drug is a silver bullet', so these guys were very strong believers.
12) Latest HCQ research round-up (it's not looking promising) https://twitter.com/AaronRichterman/status/1253374435924443136?s=20
13) Profile of Didier Raoult. Shows his eccentricity, his dislike of controlled trials, and the fact that he corresponded with the people behind that Google Doc on Chloroquine https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/magazine/didier-raoult-hydroxychloroquine.html
14) Meanwhile in Brazil, which is now badly affected by the disease, Bolsonaro supporters are chanting songs about Chloroquine… how much stranger will all this get, before the madness stops? https://twitter.com/mateusno/status/1261811334473277440
15) Oh, God.. the HCQ mania is unstoppable https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1262479492829847553
16) Another major review of HCQ shows discouraging results…
I’ve noticed that proponents are now being very exacting about the supposed protocol ('gotta combine it with zinc & time it right' etc…) I dunno, it seems very convenient to keep refining the method to be studied… https://twitter.com/TheLancet/status/1263809104633569281
I’ve noticed that proponents are now being very exacting about the supposed protocol ('gotta combine it with zinc & time it right' etc…) I dunno, it seems very convenient to keep refining the method to be studied… https://twitter.com/TheLancet/status/1263809104633569281
17) Interesting context. The natural precursor to HCQ, Quinine, was claimed to be a remedy for many ailments (aside from its direct use in treating malaria). History repeats itself… https://twitter.com/TJ__Murphy/status/1263916515801419777
18) Interesting twist. This time it seems like an 'anti-HCQ' study in The Lancet that made a splash has some problems (I suspected from the start... the way it showed much higher mortality for patients given HCQ didn't make sense) https://twitter.com/richardhorton1/status/1267913082191437824
19) The latest on various trials… looks like the chloroquine chapter of Covid treatment is coming to a close. https://twitter.com/kakape/status/1270662640499638272
20) An interesting point in that thread about why the in-vitro effect of chloroquine against viruses (including a study about SARS back in 2005) is not replicated in clinical settings... maybe because of dosage required https://twitter.com/kakape/status/1270663041433157632
21) FDA revokes authorization for HCQ in treating Covid https://twitter.com/FDA_Drug_Info/status/1272572083738902530
22) And now, after the RECOVERY trial in the UK reported no benefit from HCQ last week, and the FDA withdrew authorization a couple days ago, the World Health Organization is stopping the HCQ arm of its Solidarity trial... looks like the writing is on the wall for this pill.
23) A significant point in that Raoult profile by @scottsayare... one of the reasons it's difficult to figure out what drugs are effective for Covid is that most patients survive, so it's tricky to distinguish what therapies actually helped. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/magazine/didier-raoult-hydroxychloroquine.html
24) About the lopsided attention to HCQ in trials: “By early April, 58% of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 were receiving the drug, triple the level in February… many doses went to studies without control groups”. https://twitter.com/matthewherper/status/1280093039747366917
This chart (I think just US data) shows that when I started this thread on April 14, HCQ usage in hospitals had already reduced -50% from 3 weeks earlier.. almost zeroed out by June 14.
Waiting for other countries like India to drop it and I think we can wrap up this thread...
Waiting for other countries like India to drop it and I think we can wrap up this thread...
This image of Bolsonaro shoving HCQ pills at a reluctant giant bird should the poster for the Netflix documentary about Chloroquine Mania https://twitter.com/gersonjr/status/1286451690892341252
27) I suppose this thread would be incomplete without mentioning the ‘White Coat Summit’ inanity in the US last week... https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1288083668116942848
