3 ms·
Not a study or experiment but a "meta-study" where an attempt is made to merge data from many different experiments and form some conclusions. They started with
by giardini 6y ago
Not a study or experiment but a "meta-study" where an attempt is made to merge data from many different experiments and form some conclusions. They started with 839 studies and, in the end, used data from only 29 of those studies to draw conclusions.
Two obvious flaws:
1. "All included studies except one (Skipper et al.) were carried out on hospitalized patients". This means all patients got HCQ very late. But the recommended course for HCQ has always been to give it early at first symptoms and to never wait until hospitalization. In the "selected" experiments of this meta-study all patients were hospitalized prior to receiving HCQ, far too late for it to do it's magic.
2. "Mean (SD) age of participants was 62.1 +/- 8.5 years." The patients chosen were near elderly or elderly, those most likely to die from covid.
So they set up a meta-study by cherry-picking experiments having populations of elderly patients who were provided HCQ treatment only after hospitalization. That is, choose the weakest patients who were treated at the last possible moment and include only those patients in your meta-study.
Finally, at the end of their paper they state "Our results suggest that there is no need for further studies evaluating these molecules," In other words, thanks to this meta-study no further studies, not even the "golden standard" randomized controlled trials are required to "know" that HCQ doesn't work! The meta-study's authors see all, know all, and know best even though they haven't done a study or trial nor examined a single patient for this meta-study. The chutzpah of these authors is astonishing!
But just as in the movie "Wizard of Oz" Dorothy is instructed to "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" we must ask just who IS the "man behind the curtain"? There is a hell of a lot of money (trillions projected) that wants to put the hush to HCQ so that big pharma can sell us an expensive vaccine! Remember what has happened in the recent past:
"What Is Gilead's Role In The War On Hydroxychloroquine?"
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/what-gileads-role-war-hydroxychloroquine?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29 https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/what-gileads-role-war-hydr...
- Khelavaster 6y agoVery well thought out. You're completely right. The high average age, low sample size, and cherry-picked studies ruin the meta-analysis. Even the conclusion near the beginning is shoddy: "Hydroxychloroquine alone was not associated with reduced mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients but the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin significantly increased mortality."
- tinus_hn 6y agoDoes it really matter? Even if medicine improves so lethality drops, the general public hysteria isn’t going to die down until there is a definitive solution.
- giardini 6y agoThe most affected are elderly and those with comorbidities but even with a vaccine they remain likely to die. Unless you're in those groups there is not much to worry about. If you're in those groups you should be as careful as you wish. I concluded months ago that the HCQ+ZPAK+ZINC works when given early, so for me, no hysteria. It's a free country however so feel free to freak out.