Lancet withdraws paper on Hydroxychloroquine drug trial.

[Abha]

This will be of interest to those that have been considering Hydroxychloroquine and zinc in fighting ME/CFS.I saw HIP commenting on this on some thread but I have forgotten where.

On Thursday past, "the Lancet"(UK), a leading top medical journal, retracted an influential study concerning Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine...that raised alarms about the safety of the experimental Covid-19 treatments(chloroquine &hydroxychloroquine) amid scrutiny of the data underlying the paper.

Retraction—Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine ... - The Lancet
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31324-6/fulltext
The Lancet paper that halted global trials of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 because of fears of increased deaths has been retracted after a Guardian investigation found inconsistencies in the data.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-paper-that-halted-hydroxychloroquine-trials

 

[Hipsman]

Good news, finally they realized that they've been had!

 

[Hip]

Yes, the Guardian investigated the original paper which claimed that hydroxychloroquine treatment for COVID-19 led to increased deaths. It turns out this paper used data which could not be verified.

The paper though flawed was influential, and resulted in a number of hydroxychloroquine trials being halted because of fears about causing increased deaths. Now that this paper has been retracted, these hydroxychloroquine trials for coronavirus are restarting.



I found it intriguing that hydroxychloroquine 400 mg plus zinc 50 mg daily was shown in one study to be substantially more effective than hydroxychloroquine without zinc.

The rationale for adding zinc is that hydroxychloroquine is a zinc ionophore, meaning that it binds to zinc ions and pulls the zinc ion inside cells. One inside the cell, these zinc ions have an antiviral effect against coronavirus.

Now interestingly, intracellular zinc ions are not only antiviral for coronavirus, but also antiviral several other viruses, including coxsackievirus B, herpes simplex and hepatitis C virus.

So I wondered whether hydroxychloroquine + zinc antiviral combo also work for enterovirus ME/CFS — see this thread.