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.

  • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    You would need to have the memory of a goldfish if you thought this was bad. Remember 2020? Remember covid? Remember hospitals being flooded with people and the doctors not knowing fuck all what to do so they gave everyone respirators which made the symptoms worse? People were taking whatever they could because people were scared beyond belief. If i got covid back in early 2020 and had to choose between getting on a ventilator or this then you bet your ass i would be taking a cocktail of hydroxychloroquin, ivermectin, injected UV and all the other half baked remedies. People drank the pool cleaner so they were so desperate. People thought it was the end of the world.

    I got covid in the following January 2021 (thanks to Trumps operation warpspeed) right after getting a booster(i was one of the priority first wave) but I still took dangerous amounts of zinc and vitamin D. If my case was worse id have taken ivermectin too.

    • thundermoose@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Why do you think ventilators made people worse? They only put people on ventilators when their O2 stats dropped so low they were going to die of oxygen deprivation.

      • mateomaui@reddthat.com
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        6 months ago

        My understanding is that it was a case-by-case situation that occurred when a ventilator was too forceful for the damage already inflicted, resulting in “ventilator-induced lung injury and barotrauma”, such as when a patient had covid-related pneumonia.

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450704/

        But my understanding could be incorrect.

        edit: to be clear, I feel like the person you responded to isn’t being reasonable, but there is some basis for at least part of it.

        • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          That’s a fairly reasonable statement, but what is the best option for a patient with low blood oxygen? Let them struggle and probably die, or put them on a ventilator and may e they die if their lungs are so damaged they can’t inflate fully anymore (which definitely doesn’t indicate poor outcome for any treatment)? And then, if they die once they’ve been put on the ventilator, some people will blame that. It reeks of the, “I never go to hospitals! Do you know how many people die in them?!” mentality.

          • mateomaui@reddthat.com
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            6 months ago

            They eventually figured out the issue and just lowered the pressure being used, if I recall correctly.

            edit: Otherwise I don’t understand what you’re arguing about here. It was asked why using ventilators could made things worse and I cited the reason that was the basis for the concern in some cases. I wasn’t arguing for or against them, but if you asked that, I’m for them.

    • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Hey y’all! Sound lak Fat Pussy done his own reserchin’! He dun reel good to! He sed ventilators are what wuz killin folk and not the covid!

      Turns out it wuz them dang ol’ ventilators the whole time, y’all! Wait til them dum dum doctors heer bout this! Florida gunna ban ventilators now!

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Speaking of remembering things- remember how many, many doctors said hydroxychloroquine was not an effective drug against COVID pretty much the minute it was suggested?

      Because your memory seems to have a big science-sized hole in it.

    • MSgtRedFox@infosec.pub
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      6 months ago

      If we’re being serious for a moment, there is some merit to this in my opinion, from the standpoint of the fear and the psychology at play during that time.

      I also remember being in shock at how far people lost their minds and went off the rails believing things I thought wasn’t rational.

      I don’t fault medical professionals who were operating with no useful information, and only had standard protocols while trying to deal with an overwhelming amount of people, some who died under their care despite their efforts. They were trying everything. They prescribed the drugs. The administration was just, imo, trying to give people hope (false hope I suppose).

      I like making jokes, but I find it ironic that so many people complain about reddit allowing Nazis and hate or whatever, yet in the comments, there’s talk about it being good that conservatives died, they’re cancer, etc.

      I hate Trump, but would any of the commenters have lost their minds if instead of conservatives, the comments said progressive, Democrats, some other minority? If you’re being honest and not defensive, I think any other reaction would be a bit hypocritical?

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Dude, he wasn’t trying to give people hope. He was up there telling people this was not real, and then started telling people about Invermectin because his friend owns the company that makes it.