Posted on 04/21/2020 5:47:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Right now, there’s no one drug proven to cure COVID-19, but President Donald Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to ease the symptoms of certain autoimmune diseases. Some COVID-19 patients have reported using the drug, with mixed results.
One of those patients is Eli Hume.
“I was scared to death," Hume said. “I literally thought, ‘oh crap, I might not make it out of here.’”
Hume contracted COVID-19 in March. After a few days of a high-grade fever, he was admitted into Norton Brownsboro Hospital. For two weeks, the 46-year-old, previously healthy former firefighter battled severe pneumonia, pancreatitis and extreme dehydration as a result of the virus. He asked his doctors for hydroxychloroquine.
“I said, ‘I know it’s kind of experimental, I know it’s a malaria drug, but I’d really like to try this,’” Hume said.
Hume took his first dose on a Friday, piggy-backed by azythromycin, better known as the Z-pack. By Sunday, he told WAVE 3 News he has passed a breathing exam and was out of the hospital.
“A hundred percent, I do believe it saved my life," Hume said.
Hume’s story is like others across the country. Several people have reported taking hydroxychloroquine combined with azythromycin, and recovered from COVID-19. But so far, their stories are just that - stories. Though research is continuing, the drug not yet backed by science.
WAVE 3 News asked Dr. Lisa June why that was the case.
“The data is minuscule," June said.
June is a rheumatologist who prescribes this drug often to her patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lupus. In those cases, this anti-inflammatory drug is life-saving.
“Lupus patients who are on it have been shown to live longer than Lupus patients not on it," June said. "They’re less likely to have kidney involvement, blood clots. So it’s kind of a no-brainer. Every Lupus patient should be on it.”
June says the thought with COVID-19 is similar - reducing the patient’s inflammation could help that patient improve. But she said to know for sure, there needs to be more work done.
“We know that the majority of people with this do not die of it," June said. "And until there’s good placebo-controlled trials, then all of the hype is just that.”
Hype or not, Hume is convinced without the drug, he’d be dead.
“I’m out of the hospital, after just a day and a half or two days of this medicine," Hume said. "You can’t convince me of anything other.”
According to an article from the National Institutes of Health, clinical trials of hydroxchloroquine have started at Vanderbilt University.
Another person who doesn’t care if his life was saved anecdotally.
Has anyone ever done a scientific study that a firing squad results in the condemned’s death?
I hear there is a lot of anecdotal evidence, but not a peer reviewed study.
Can someone explain to him that can’t possibly be the case?
‘I’m The King Of Corona’: Former Steeler QB Terry Hanratty Is Out Of The Hospital After Testing Positive For Coronavirus
...
As part of Hanratty’s treatment protocol, he was given the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. He said after just three days, he started to feel much better. Before his trip to the hospital, he had never heard of the drug.
“I had no clue, and you’ve heard so much about it since then, and you start wondering, why not?” wondered Hanratty. “We’ve been using this thing for decades. And it can help. I mean there was no side effects whatsoever.”
Another ‘anecdote’...
Her family credits her Archcare doctors and the experimental drug hydroxychloroquine with saving her life.
S.I. coronavirus diary: This COVID-19 survivor says hydroxychloroquine helped save his life
Carmelo Saia says he has a whole new outlook on life just weeks after COVID-19 nearly took his life while battling the deadly virus in the Intensive Care Unit.
Acknowledging that approximately only 20 percent of people who go on ventilators, as he did, survive, he believes his life was saved after giving a doctor the thumbs up to use the experimental drug hydroxychoroquine after it appeared he was out of other options.
Now in complete respiratory failure, a doctor asked Saia if he wanted to try hydroxychoroquine, the anti-malarial drug that is sometimes given to COVID-19 patients. A desperate Saia agreed to take it and was also give Zithromax (Z-pack).
Eventually, Saia’s oxygen levels began to improve and he was taken off the ventilator.
“I couldn’t breathe, so I did what I had to and that included taking the hydroxychoroquine,’’ said the father of sons 14 and 11-years-old. “(The hydroxychoroquine) definitely kept me alive and I think anybody with the virus should take the drug. It helped me.’’
I’ll believe regular people long before I believe the Press.
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3837463/posts
Everyone wants HCQ to work -- but, until we know that the drug works, its use should be limited to those who chose to use it on a "what do we have to lose" basis.
About three dozen drugs, including HCQ, are in hyper-accelerated clinical trials right now. We'll know: what works, when it works, what needs to be taken with it, what needs to be avoided, and how much to take soon enough.
Sorry, but anecdotal evidence has a very poor track record, and wish-fulfillment doesn't change that fact. Western medicine developed through the application of scientific methods. Now, is not the time to abandon what has worked so well for the past couple of centuries.
RE: Everyone wants HCQ to work — but, until we know that the drug works, its use should be limited to those who chose to use it on a “what do we have to lose” basis
That applies to every single possible treatment out there including Remdesivir. We don’t live in normal times and do not have the luxury of several months of random double blind controlled study.
RE: The studies are proceeding in parallel to actual use. We don’t have the luxury to not do the proper trials.
Parallel is good. Do the proper testing WHILE NOT prohibiting the usage. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
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