Trump is spreading false hope for a virus cure — and that’s not the only damage

DURING THE first two weeks of March, 20 patients suffering from the new coronavirus at a hospital in Marseille, France, participated in a preliminary study to see if the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine had any effect on the disease, in some cases combined with an antibiotic, azithromycin. Sixteen people who didn’t get the drugs were enlisted as controls. After six days, the study found that 57.1 percent of patients who got hydroxychloroquine were cured, and 100 percent of those who got both drugs were cleared of the virus — compared to only 12.5 percent of the control group. Soon after it was published, this result was advertised by President Trump as “a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.”

Not so fast. Such success does not usually occur overnight. Widespread testing for drug safety and efficacy is essential. The French result does not mean this drug is ready for use against the coronavirus, nor should a world ridden with anxiety about pandemic illness and death rest its hopes on this unproven possibility. There may be a “wonder” drug at the end of the rainbow, but we are not there yet.

The French results, reported by Dr. Didier Raoult and colleagues in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents on March 20, were from a tiny group of people. Normally in the United States, a set of controlled clinical trials would be required before a drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration: Phase 1 to determine overall safety and dosage; Phase 2 (about 100 people) to see if effective and safe compared with other compounds; Phase 3 (a large group) to test efficacy and side effects. Continue reading.