Are the deaths of COVID-19 patients in President Donald Trump’s small hands? Is he taking the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, or was it ‘just’ another selfish attempt to distract from his failures which have become too numerous to count?

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE FAILURE

To properly test a possible cure, a study must include placebos. However, so soon into the crisis, that’s been impossible. However, the esteemed Lancet medical journal has published the results of an observational study of hydroxychloroquine used on 96,000 COVID-19 patients on 6 continents.

The result was that more patients died than those who weren’t treated with hydroxychloroquine. The result isn’t conclusive, and bigger trials are underway, but this blog begets its title because of the radically higher chance of death that was shown here.

INCREASED RISK OF DEATH

• 1 in 11 of the 96,000 patients receiving varied treatments died.
• 1 in 6 receiving hydroxychloroquine died.
• 1 in 4 receiving hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic died.

It’s known that COVID-19 causes blood clots. The best indication of the danger of hydroxychloroquine is that it increased heart arrhythmia by 137%. That’s to be expected since the USA’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned, one month ago, that it would cause heart problems.

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS VS SCIENCE

Will this scientific study stem the tsunami of conspiracy theorists? Unlikely.

The Guardian described Trump as a, “One-man delivery vehicle for a dunce cult that denies science.” Comedian Jimmy Kimmel joked about Trump followers making hydroxychloroquine at home: “I have to say I like this idea. That’s good old-fashioned American initiative! Boil up some homemade hydroxy! What could possibly go wrong?”

A segment of the population has a desperate psychological need to believe in anything when there are no answers to their fears. They’d rather believe in something bad than nothing at all. Until there’s a coronavirus vaccine, expect more unfounded hysteria. Unfortunately, that can kill too.

What’s likely is that the UK government will stop using its healthcare workers as guinea pigs. American war veterans may not be as lucky.  But Donald Trump will stop using hydroxychloroquine, and then narcissistically lie about why he did.