patrick.net

The latest positive results come from Vadodara, India, where city officials have conducted a major study involving more than 300,000 people, including “health workers and other frontline staff.” ...

Local health official Dr. Devesh Patel told the paper, “It has shown positive results. We have the numbers and not one person has complained of complications. The only side effect reported is mild gastritis, which is common with administering heavy medicines and can be effectively handled.”

In other words, anyone who has taken the much more common azithromycin antibiotic for a simple sinus infection has probably suffered about the same distress — all gastric — as a subject of the Vadodara study.

Dr. Mohammad Hussain, who runs Vadodara’s Faith Hospital, told the Express, “There are conflicting studies about the use of HCQ. While initially the US studies rejected it and cited side-effects, European countries backed its prophylactic use. In Vadodara, it has shown positive results. We have been able to restrict cases in clusters. Nagarwada no longer has a huge number of cases.”

Hussain reiterated that no serious side effects were reported.

Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton noted on Friday that Trump Derangement Syndrome almost certainly cost lives in the fight against COVID-19:

More evidence that #Hydroxychloroquine can help prevent one from getting #coronavirus. India long ago deployed this drug as a preventative. But the crazed anti-@RealDonaldTrump med/media complex is suppressing this likely preventative and treatment! https://t.co/VejaB3WMLk

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) July 10, 2020

While HCQ is no miracle cure, the evidence continues to mount that the drug is a safe and effective treatment or prophylactic measure against COVID-19.

“Hydroxychloroquine is like a religion for some people,” Funck-Brentano had said.

And yet, if HCQ’s side effects are limited to a small subset of the population, and more recent studies have shown it might be beneficial treating the broader population for COVID-19, it makes you wonder who the religious nuts really are.

Meanwhile, HCQ is apparently so safe to use that doctors are urging the FDA to make it available over the counter.