Study finds hydroxychloroquine, the drug taken by Trump to ward off COVID-19, doesn't prevent coronavirus infection
The drug President Trump said he was taking to prevent COVID-19 failed another test Wednesday, when a study showed it did not protect against infections.
The new study by University of Minnesota and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed hydroxychloroquine wasn't better than a placebo at preventing the development of COVID-19 in someone who was exposed to the coronavirus that causes it.
The 821 participants in the clinical trial were health care workers or first responders, or lived in a household with someone who was. Half the volunteers took five days of hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and the other half received a placebo. Participants and doctors did not know who was getting the active drug.
About 40% of those who took the drug developed non-serious side effects – mostly nausea, stomach upset, and diarrhea. The drug did not cause any serious side effects, according to the study.
"This is very useful information about hydroxychloroquine," said Otto Yang, a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and an infectious disease specialist at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California.
More: 'Hydroxychloroquine is useless': Doctors want drug for autoimmune patients, not COVID-19
Antibiotics and antivirals are usually more effective in early disease or in preventing disease in the first place, he said in an email. "If it’s not preventing, that’s not a good sign for efficacy of treating."
Several other experts said the study highlights the importance of conducting research before patients are given a medication.
"This trial is significant because it highlights that we must do rigorous studies to find out if a medicine works. That is the only way we’ll find out how best to prevent COVID-19," said Rajesh Gandhi, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School.
Doctors had used the drug extensively in the early days of the pandemic, largely based on promising research in test tubes and a French study that was later debunked.
The Trump, who has touted the drug since March, said on May 18 that his doctor had prescribed him hydroxychloroquine to prevent a serious infection in case he was exposed to the coronavirus. He has since stopped taking the drug.
On March 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) allowing hydroxychloroquine to be used against COVID-19, but later cautioned against using the drug outside of a hospital or clinical trial, because of possible cardiac side effects.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Study finds drug touted by Trump doesn't prevent COVID-19
