Publicity about a small study of a potential covid-19 treatment was enough to create a 200 percent increase in hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine prescriptions in March. Although the biggest surge was short-lived, almost a half million extra prescriptions were filled over a 10-week period studied by researchers, according to the resultspublished yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The national study found that hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine prescriptions were increasing slowly when the pandemic was declared, but shot up after publicity about a non-randomized study of 19 Chinese patients on March 17. Although that study has been widely criticized, Fox News personalities and President Trump promoted the potential cure.
The week before the publicity, prescriptions were 31 percent higher than normal, but over the next week, the prescriptions shot up 214 percent above normal, said the researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the Boston Veteran’s Administration Healthcare System and GoodRx. Continue reading.