Live data from Hacker News

Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

reuters.com

21–30 of 134 posts

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#21
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering there is no edit on the original post, the answer has been in it since you asked the question.

How can we tell if HN comments have been edited? [I have now edited... but please don't say "I see that you added something in brackets"]

[deleted]

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#22
post #16

A word of warning to all who consider stocking up on and self-medicating with Chloroquine: while this is a well-studied medicine, it can have severe side effects, particularly in the eyes (including blindness). That said, let's hope it has some effect as current anecdata suggests.

It's not anecdata. There was a small clinical study which was just completed, and showed almost miraculous success with hydroxychloroquine.

https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/20...

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#23
post #16

A word of warning to all who consider stocking up on and self-medicating with Chloroquine: while this is a well-studied medicine, it can have severe side effects, particularly in the eyes (including blindness). That said, let's hope it has some effect as current anecdata suggests.

It's also taken on a long term basis. The risk of side effects for short term use is lower.

It's also important to understand the medication interactions, which can be quite serious.

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#24
To those who aren't aware of it, there was a recently completed (small) clinical study of hydroxychloroquine (and in some cases HCQ plus z-pack) just completed in France. The results are here: https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/20...

They're miraculous. This is a well-studied, mass-produced drug which has been around for 70 years and appears to be highly effective at treating this virus.

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#25
post #16

A word of warning to all who consider stocking up on and self-medicating with Chloroquine: while this is a well-studied medicine, it can have severe side effects, particularly in the eyes (including blindness). That said, let's hope it has some effect as current anecdata suggests.

it seems to be prescription only, so shortages due to hording should be minimal...

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#26
post #19

I wonder if there is a point where literally everyone just gets a dose of chloroquine. My understanding is it stops the virus replicating and so is almost a preventative rather than a treatment.

It's way too nasty a drug IME. The side effects can be really unpleasant, not even considering the possible long term effects.

But it would make sense for medical staff and other people in high risk occupations.

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#28
post #20

Does anyone know how quickly the production of Chloroquine Phosphate and Hydroxychloroquine can be ramped up (say, to the tune of 500M people * 7g per "course" = 3.5 million kilograms? I tried finding out how much chloroquine is prescribed world wide per year, but couldn't find it. It may give us a clue into how much is already being used. I know that it isn't used except for pregnant women as a malaria treatement be…

Luckily we make a lot of tonic water!

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#29
post #24

To those who aren't aware of it, there was a recently completed (small) clinical study of hydroxychloroquine (and in some cases HCQ plus z-pack) just completed in France. The results are here: https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/20... They're miraculous. This is a well-studied, mass-produced drug which has been around for 70 years and appears to be highly effective at treating this virus.

[Message deleted because I agree I cannot backup my claim and I may be wrong.]

Re: Bayer donates 3M chloroquine phosphate tablets for potential Covid-19 treatment

#30
post #24

To those who aren't aware of it, there was a recently completed (small) clinical study of hydroxychloroquine (and in some cases HCQ plus z-pack) just completed in France. The results are here: https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/20... They're miraculous. This is a well-studied, mass-produced drug which has been around for 70 years and appears to be highly effective at treating this virus.

>They're miraculous.

Where are you seeing that? Because what I see is a very non-rigorous, non-randomized study. Also, what about this part:

>A total of 26 patients received hydroxychloroquine and 16 were control patients. Six hydroxychloroquine-treated patients were lost in follow-up during the survey because of early cessation of treatment. Reasons are as follows: three patients were transferred to intensive care unit, including one transferred on day2 post-inclusion who was PCR-positive on day1, one transferred on day3 post-inclusion who was PCR-positive on days1-2 and one transferred on day4 post-inclusion who was PCRpositive on day1 and day3; one patient died on day3 post inclusion and was PCR-negative on day2; one patient decided to leave the hospital on day3 post-inclusion and was PCR-negative on days1-2; finally, one patient stopped the treatment on day3 post-inclusion because of nausea and was PCR-positive on days1-2-3.

Really easy to have "miraculous" results when 20+% of your treatment group were excluded and also happened to be the ones with the most severe symptoms.

Post reply on HN