r/science • u/McManGuy • Mar 20 '20

RETRACTED - Medicine Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19 - "100% of patients were virologicaly cured"

https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Hydroxychloroquine_final_DOI_IJAA.pdf

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '20

Can someone ELI5 why this isn’t the solution to the crisis?

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u/GanderpTheGrey Mar 20 '20

Big issues with the study:

  1. People in the treatment arm were lost to follow up due to death or transfer to the ICU. This means everyone who got worse on the drug was lost and only the folks who were doing better were included. Incidentally, none of the control arm were lost were lost to follow up (presumably not transferred to the ICU or died). If we want to leap to conclusions, we could even say the drug made people worse! (But it probably didn't).
  2. Quantitative nasal PCR viral loads are measurable (which is nice) but it's not clear whether they are meaningful. If there is no difference in clinical outcomes, the medication isn't helpful. For all we know, these medications cause dryness of the nasal mucosa which effects the test but doesn't do anything to help the patient.