Here is what concerns us. This drug has not been rigorously studied and its efficacy and safety in treating this vicious virus is unknown.
Our group of some 16 family physicians have been in a buzz about the recent recommendations to treat COVID-19 coronavirus infection with a drug called hydroxychloroquine.
Here is what concerns us. This drug has not been rigorously studied and its efficacy and safety in treating this vicious virus is unknown.
That’s right, its efficacy and safety in treating COVID-19 coronavirus is unknown and until scientific research deems it both safe and effective caution should strongly be advised against its use.
In a companion video, I detailed its serious side effects – cardiac arrhythmias, fulminate liver failure, blindness and bone marrow suppression.
In this segment I’m focusing on the reason that research is so important and it’s all about safety. What really needs to be demonstrated before it can be approved by the FDA for use in treating COVID-19 is how hydroxychloroquine behaves in the humans when administered to treat this infection. We know it side effects in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, but we haven’t clue as to how it will react when administered to patients afflicted with a virulent virus like COVID-19. This is imperative.
Might more patients die or suffer long term consequences from the combination of hydroxychloroquine and virus, than fighting the virus alone?
As we treat, we must research. But not willy-nilly.
As physicians, we live by the mantra, “First do no harm” and it’s critical to remember this during the awful hours and anguish of this pandemic.
I didn’t graduate from Cornell University like Dr. Fauci, nor work throughout my career at the National Institutes of Health like Drs. Fauci and Birx, but I did graduate from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, I did my residency in family medicine at Brown University, I took an Academic Medicine fellowship at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and I received a Masters of Public Health from the University of Liverpool. And as I treat patients day in and day out during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, that’s plenty good enough for them.
This is Dr. Jim for Be Healthy! Be Happy! ask your doctor if hydroxychloroquine is right for you. Think twice about taking it to treat COVID-19 coronavirus infection should you get this awful disease. We simply don’t know enough about it.