Like everyone, I'm glued to covid-19 news. A lot of it good, and a lot of it bad.

Here is a thread about things reporters are getting wrong. 1/

Hydroxychloroquine: there were some early studies, without control groups, that showed it might work. Then people started throwing it at everything, even prescribing it to themselves prophylactically.

This is called panic. 2/

Now we have some of the first double blind controlled studies, the gold standard in medical literature, showing its effect is null or even harmful. 3/ https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-chloroquine-study-stopped-early.html

This pitfall should go for EVERYTHING we are studying. Don't describe, don't give me case studies. If there is no control arm, it's not worth the paper it's printed on and is much more likely to harm than help. Health journalists: stop falling for this. 4/

Antibodies are all the rage now. The reality right now is, 1) we don't know if the tests predict immunity, 2) we don't know what level predicts immunity 3) plenty of people will take your money for a bs test. 5/

You don't need a test to self quarantine. If you have symptoms, stay at home. If you don't have symptoms, stay at home if you can. Asymptomatic transmission is real and it is deadly. Do not hop between doctors' offices, exposing people looking for a test. 6/

The difference in covid19 rates by race is not due to choices or genetics. It is poverty directly linked to slavery and Jim Crow, racism, and systemic barriers to high quality health care. 7/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31029930 

People keep mentioning obesity as a risk factor because half of the people who are hospitalized are obese. But so are half of Americans. So this is probably just lazy shorthand, which obesity often is. 8/

Finally, don't drink bleach. 9/9

What did I miss @laxswamy @drjessigold @ShannonOMac @MDaware @londyloo @ShreyaTrivediMD @GIMaPreceptor @arghavan_salles @traependergrast #medtwitter