Hydroxychloroquine ‘had no effect on seriously ill coronavirus patients in NY’

Preliminary results of a study on hydroxychloroquine in New York showed that the anti-malaria drug had no effect on critically ill coronavirus patients, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
The study, sponsored by the Department of Health, looked at about 600 patients at 22 hospitals in the greater New York City area.
“I think from the review that I heard basically it was not seen as a positive, not seen as a negative,” Cuomo said during a CNN town hall.
Some seriously ill COVID-19 patients in the state began to be treated with the drug, at times in combination with the antibiotic Zithromax, or azithromycin, earlier this month.
President Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential life-saver, although there is no widespread scientific evidence to date showing it helps battle COVID-19.
Those who took the medicine, with or without the antibiotic, weren’t any more likely to survive than those who didn’t, the lead researcher on the New York study told CNN.
“We don’t see a statistically significant difference between patients who took the drugs and those who did not,” said David Holtgrave, dean of the University at Albany School of Public Health.
The drug also proved to be no better than standard care in a smaller study of 300 male patients at Veterans Health Administration medical centers across the nation.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/23/hydroxychloroquine-had-no-effect-on-seriously-ill-in-new-york-study/