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Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#21

Post by Cantbekhan »

newsbinator wrote: post #13

I can't seem to find information on whether Chloroquine would be taken prophylactically to be effective, or only after diagnosis and symptoms appear.

Some GPs in some EU countries did decide do take it prophylactically due to lack of PPE. But most around me agree this is a risky and probably bad advice. The current publicly available guidelines do not recommend taking it before you develop symptoms and do not recommend taking it at all if you are asymptomatic and/or very young. And also certainly they do not recommend any self medication without doctor's approval as there can be serious adverse effects with chloroquine (less with hydroxichloroquine).

Also this would have a terrible effect and indeed cause supply shortages as another commenter pointed out.

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#22

Post by m0zg »

_m5dp wrote: post #15
vijayr02 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just posted a story about a vaccine being found. Would be great to know from the experts in this area if the approach they describe in the article makes sense https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22565460

I'm fairly certain finding the vaccine is really quite easy to develop and has been done by multiple companies small and large already. The main issue is to do the clinical trials and get it approved and mass produced in a timely fashion. These trials and the validation can take about a year. Here is the official list of currently being developed covid19 vaccines (all in pre-clinical stage) https://www.who.int/bluepr…

Yeah, a local hospital was approved for vaccine testing today. Timeline for completing the tests? 13 months.

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#23

Post by scarejunba »

saagarjha wrote: post #17
allovernow wrote: post #7

Honestly this is a perfect example of a time when laws are excessively restrictive. I should have the right to purchase this drug and use it as a last resort in the case that I or my family are infected. It's not fair to responsible people who are capable of researching safety and dosages to have to pay for the ignorance of others. Especially when this drug is OTC in most of the world. You don't need a medical degree…

What if the drug causes humans to die two weeks after taking it?

Then you'll know because I volunteered for it.

And I know I won't die because it's already safe enough to fight malaria. But maybe you don't know that. That's fine. I do. Let me arbitrage my knowledge.

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#24

Post by allovernow »

saagarjha wrote: post #17
allovernow wrote: post #7

Honestly this is a perfect example of a time when laws are excessively restrictive. I should have the right to purchase this drug and use it as a last resort in the case that I or my family are infected. It's not fair to responsible people who are capable of researching safety and dosages to have to pay for the ignorance of others. Especially when this drug is OTC in most of the world. You don't need a medical degree…

What if the drug causes humans to die two weeks after taking it?

The alternative is drowning in your own body fluids after you're turned away by overwhelmed hospitals. Or watching it happen helplessly to your loved ones after they're turned away for being too old, as is happening in Italy. And in any case Chloroquine is a well studied, proven safe drug with minimal side effects and a high therapeutic ratio.

Nanny states breed incompetence.

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#25

Post by allovernow »

lultimouomo wrote: post #19
allovernow wrote: post #7

Honestly this is a perfect example of a time when laws are excessively restrictive. I should have the right to purchase this drug and use it as a last resort in the case that I or my family are infected. It's not fair to responsible people who are capable of researching safety and dosages to have to pay for the ignorance of others. Especially when this drug is OTC in most of the world. You don't need a medical degree…

I'm reasonably sure having hospitals run out of it because it was hoarded by preppers is not a desirable outcome.

That's a patently ridiculous reason to make a drug illegal to own without a prescription. Should we also outlaw non Rx toilet paper? Hospitals have supply chains that are separate from pharmacies and grocery stores. This is a non sequitur.

What about masks? Should they be preemptively made Rx only when all this is said and done because people hoarded them?

What about the fact that evidence of Chloroquine's likely effectiveness has been around in the form of published studies for at least a month and a half and doctors still are barely testing it? What percentage of doctors do you think keep up with literature?

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#26

Post by saagarjha »

allovernow wrote: post #25
lultimouomo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reasonably sure having hospitals run out of it because it was hoarded by preppers is not a desirable outcome.

That's a patently ridiculous reason to make a drug illegal to own without a prescription. Should we also outlaw non Rx toilet paper? Hospitals have supply chains that are separate from pharmacies and grocery stores. This is a non sequitur. What about masks? Should they be preemptively made Rx only when all this is said and done because people hoarded them? What about the fact that evidence of Chloroquine's likely eff…

Considering that news of coronavirus is so widespread that you're apparently aware of this, I would think that most doctors are probably aware of this too.

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#27

Post by lultimouomo »

allovernow wrote: post #25
lultimouomo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reasonably sure having hospitals run out of it because it was hoarded by preppers is not a desirable outcome.

That's a patently ridiculous reason to make a drug illegal to own without a prescription. Should we also outlaw non Rx toilet paper? Hospitals have supply chains that are separate from pharmacies and grocery stores. This is a non sequitur. What about masks? Should they be preemptively made Rx only when all this is said and done because people hoarded them? What about the fact that evidence of Chloroquine's likely eff…

In emergencies it is pretty standard procedures to ration essential stuff in limited supplies. Food is regularly rationed during war times. It would not be ridiculous at all to limit the use of an OTC drug to hospitals during an emergency, if there is limited supply (don't know if that's the case with chloroquine).

BTW cloroquine+antivirals is pretty much the first line drug treatment in Italy, at least according to guidelines: http://www.simit.org/medias/1555-covid19-linee-guida-trattam...

I'm pretty sure that doctors dealing with a pandemic have read enough about the treatment options to know the guidelines. But hey, surely that can't know as much as a random guy on the internet.

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#29

Post by saagarjha »

scarejunba wrote: post #23
saagarjha wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the drug causes humans to die two weeks after taking it?

Then you'll know because I volunteered for it. And I know I won't die because it's already safe enough to fight malaria. But maybe you don't know that. That's fine. I do. Let me arbitrage my knowledge.

> Then you'll know because I volunteered for it.

Clinical trials are already fast-tracked during epidemics; if you're really interested you may even be selected for one. But going out and randomly buying medicine because it seems like it might work (even though it might not, but you're cured without it, which means you're going to go out and tell everyone else to go buy it too) might not necessarily be the best way to deal with this.

> But maybe you don't know that.

I am aware of chloroquine's use in malaria treatment.

Re: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treating Covid-19

#30

Post by jshevek »

rrggrr wrote: post #28

Zinc. Chloroquine provides zinc and ionosphere for absorbtion that likely stops replicase.

Yes, I was reading about this recently. Another study compared zinc uptake into the cytosol for various extracellular zinc levels, with and without chloroquine.

I noticed when looking at the data, that while chloroquine facilitated a massive uptake a zinc, it was still true that increasing the extracellular zinc concentration (without chloroquine) still increased the cytosol's zinc concentration (by a lesser amount).

I promptly ordered zinc supplements. Obviously I'll see a doctor if I have symptoms, but I'll also hedge my bets.

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