Yale epidemiologist says hydroxychloroquine could save up to 100K lives if used for Covid

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Yale epidemiologist says hydroxychloroquine could save up to 100K lives if used for coronavirus

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An epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health said hydroxychloroquine could save 100,000 lives from the coronavirus but added that the controversial anti-malaria drug has instead been used in a “propaganda war.”

"I think 75,000 to 100,000 lives will be saved," Dr. Harvey Risch said in an interview Tuesday evening with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham after she asked if thousands of lives could be saved if a hydroxychloroquine stockpile was released.

“It's a political drug now, not a medical drug, and that's caused the complete population's ignorance. And I think we're basically fighting a propaganda war against the medical facts, and that color is not just the population of people, how they think about it, but doctors as well,” Risch said earlier in the interview.

Risch also addressed colleagues who have denounced using the drug as a treatment for coronavirus patients.

“There are many doctors that I’ve gotten hostile remarks about, saying that all the evidence is bad for it, and, in fact, that is not true at all,” Risch said, claiming the medication can be used as a "prophylactic" for front-line workers.

“All the evidence is actually good for it when it is used in outpatient uses. Nevertheless, the only people who actually see that are a whole pile of doctors who are on the front lines treating those patients across the country, and they are the ones who are at risk of being forced not to do it,” Risch said.

President Trump touted hydroxychloroquine during the early days of the pandemic and even revealed in May that he was taking the medication as a preventative measure against COVID-19.

"A lot of good things have come out. And you'd be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the front-line workers, before you catch it. The front-line workers — many, many are taking it. I happen to be taking it," he said on May 18.

Public officials and media pundits have been highly critical of the drug's use during the pandemic because of a dearth of evidence that it has the ability to combat or ward off the coronavirus.

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One peer-reviewed study published this month from the Henry Ford Health System found that coronavirus patients who took hydroxychloroquine while being treated in a hospital were more likely to survive. "In this multi-hospital assessment, when controlling for COVID-19 risk factors, treatment with hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with azithromycin was associated with reduction in COVID-19 associated mortality," the study's authors wrote.

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