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.

  • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    A lot of people in here acting like the patient was the one that got to decide what kind of drugs they were getting. I had covid very very early on, and I was hospitalized. They had me on hydroxychloroquine. The doctors and nurses didn’t know what the fuck was going on, they were trying everything they could hoping that something would work. I was basically a test subject because it was so early on. It looks like it didn’t kill me, which is great, but at no point did I ask to be put on it.

    • PutangInaMo@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Yeah but the subsequent private purchases of the drug well after it was established to not work is what the issue is.

      If you got covid in that first year you were getting treated with the kitchen sink. Your Healthcare decided the drug was worth the risk and you got it. Not every hospital was doing that, hell I hadn’t even heard of one using it until your comment…