4 ms·

I personally think it is unlikely to work, and at best might have a marginal effect. That is mostly because most of these early results don't pan out, so that i

I personally think it is unlikely to work, and at best might have a marginal effect. That is mostly because most of these early results don't pan out, so that is a reasonably safe bet in any case. And as you said, a very strong effect would likely have been shown by now, with all the attention and the large number of people getting the drug. I was trying to keep objective when writing that, there simply wasn't any really well-designed trial yet. Though from what I read just an hour ago or so there is a new trial that is said to be randomized and well-designed that hasn't found an effect, but I haven't looked beyond the headlines there yet.

SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
One of the potential reasons that ex-USSR has quite low death rate (even if we consider that numbers are forged, and actualy 5x (!) bigger than in reality is that all of these countries actively use antimalarial drugs.
- zoomablemind 6y ago
  Where does this claim come from? Ex-USSR sounds too broad. Any sources on the 'active use'?
  - SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
    Russia does according to various circumstantial pieces of evidence - keep in mind, being Russia, lot of this info is not public. All of ex-USSR shared similar medical system previously, and many (except for Baltic countries probably) tend to follow the advice of Russian doctors. I cannot give you some "hard evidence", only probably for Russia, yet the death rate and speed of infection spread is clearly lower in these countries.
    - zoomablemind 6y ago
      Russia is currently third in the world with the highest number of confirmed cases (over 400k), after USA and Brazil. Deaths data reported from Russia are even more questionable, given their disposition, early in epidemic, to fudge it on comorbidities. As for the malaria drugs, these were not in routine use, at least not prior to the current epidemic. Moreover, recently Russia seems to place its bets on a Japanese broad-spectrum antiviral drug Favipiravir [1]. [1]: https://www.trialsitenews.com/russia-ministry-of-health-approves-avifavir-favipiravir-for-covid-19-patients-cuts-duration-of-illness-by-over-50/ https://www.trialsitenews.com/russia-ministry-of-health-appr...
      - SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
        1. They have lots of cases, because they do lots of testing. Even then it is on 33rd place on the cases per capita scale. 2. As I said, even if the actual death rate is more than 500% (unrealistic number) of claimed the number is still low, much lower than of the most of Europe. 3. Of course they did not use malaria drugs prior to epidemic - why would they? They used quinine derivative long before May, cannot find a link right now, but here is a link for Uzbekistan (https://podrobno.uz/cat/obchestvo/stalo-izvestno-chem-lechat-koronavirus-v-uzbekistane-/ https://podrobno.uz/cat/obchestvo/stalo-izvestno-chem-lechat...) which uses chloroquine. The death rate is abysmal in Uzbekistan, and everywhere else in Central Asia, the other countries use similar methods. You may argue that Uzbekistan is not a reliable source of information, but there is clearly no outbreaks in that particular country.

SomeoneFromCA 6y ago

One of the potential reasons that ex-USSR has quite low death rate (even if we consider that numbers are forged, and actualy 5x (!) bigger than in reality is that all of these countries actively use antimalarial drugs.

zoomablemind 6y ago
Where does this claim come from? Ex-USSR sounds too broad. Any sources on the 'active use'?
- SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
  Russia does according to various circumstantial pieces of evidence - keep in mind, being Russia, lot of this info is not public. All of ex-USSR shared similar medical system previously, and many (except for Baltic countries probably) tend to follow the advice of Russian doctors. I cannot give you some "hard evidence", only probably for Russia, yet the death rate and speed of infection spread is clearly lower in these countries.
  - zoomablemind 6y ago
    Russia is currently third in the world with the highest number of confirmed cases (over 400k), after USA and Brazil. Deaths data reported from Russia are even more questionable, given their disposition, early in epidemic, to fudge it on comorbidities. As for the malaria drugs, these were not in routine use, at least not prior to the current epidemic. Moreover, recently Russia seems to place its bets on a Japanese broad-spectrum antiviral drug Favipiravir [1]. [1]: https://www.trialsitenews.com/russia-ministry-of-health-approves-avifavir-favipiravir-for-covid-19-patients-cuts-duration-of-illness-by-over-50/ https://www.trialsitenews.com/russia-ministry-of-health-appr...
    - SomeoneFromCA 6y ago
      1. They have lots of cases, because they do lots of testing. Even then it is on 33rd place on the cases per capita scale. 2. As I said, even if the actual death rate is more than 500% (unrealistic number) of claimed the number is still low, much lower than of the most of Europe. 3. Of course they did not use malaria drugs prior to epidemic - why would they? They used quinine derivative long before May, cannot find a link right now, but here is a link for Uzbekistan (https://podrobno.uz/cat/obchestvo/stalo-izvestno-chem-lechat-koronavirus-v-uzbekistane-/ https://podrobno.uz/cat/obchestvo/stalo-izvestno-chem-lechat...) which uses chloroquine. The death rate is abysmal in Uzbekistan, and everywhere else in Central Asia, the other countries use similar methods. You may argue that Uzbekistan is not a reliable source of information, but there is clearly no outbreaks in that particular country.