IGNORING THE HYSTERIA FROM THE LEFT, HERE’s THE REALITY WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT ( see article ):
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine disrupt interactions between some of SARS-CoV-2’s proteins with proteins called sigma receptors in human cells, researchers report April 30 in Nature. Interrupting those protein interactions may make it difficult for the virus to replicate, says study coauthor Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, a microbiologist who directs the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Together, those antiviral capabilities make the drugs attractive for use against the coronavirus. But there’s another important reason chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine were some of the first drugs pressed into action: They’re available. Doctors have been prescribing the drugs, already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for decades and they’re generally safe, although there are some serious side effects.
“Time is of the essence,” says Adam Spivak, an infectious-disease doctor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “When you have a drug that you understand and can safely administer that’s on the shelf, that’s the drug you reach for first.”
Hydroxychloroquine is better tolerated by most people, so is the one researchers are testing more often.
But isn’t taking hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine dangerous?
It can be FOR SOME PEOPLE, such as those prone to heart problems, or when taken in combination with other drugs that can alter heart rhythms.
In trials with very sick people, hydroxychloroquine has caused sometimes fatal heart-rhythm problems. People with existing heart problems, those with low potassium levels or low oxygen levels in their blood are especially vulnerable to these serious side effects, says Raymond Woosley, a pharmacologist the University of Arizona in Phoenix.
If a pedestrian, carrying no ID and therefore no known medical history, is hit by a car and taken to the hospital unconscious, I can understand that great caution should be used in prescribing drugs. Patients, diagnosed with the C-virus, especially from nursing homes, have known medical histories, including their heart problems. Doctors would not prescribe a medication, such as hydrochloriquine, for them.
I hope that this inexpensive, available drug will show outstanding results in saving lives and ending the C-virus pandemic. It's too bad that Trump-haters hope that it doesn't work. Do they even realize how evil they are in hoping that a treatment does not work?