A drug infamously touted by Donald Trump has been linked to nearly 17,000 Covid deaths in a new scientific study.

Researchers say that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was prescribed to patients during the first wave of Covid-19 “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits.”

The French study estimated that 16,990 patients in the US, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Turkey may have died as a result of the drug.

The study has been published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.

Researchers say the data used comes from a study published in the Nature scientific journal, which reported that there was an 11 per cent increase in mortality rate linked to the drug’s prescription.

  • Dave@lemmy.nz
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    6 months ago

    If you sold a lot of alcohol, you’ve almost certainly contributed to a death. Between drunk driving, stupid alcohol decisions, and cancer, alcohol is pretty much the most dangerous drug we have in terms of societal damage (because its usage is so widespread).

    I probably shouldn’t have used the word “responsible”, though. If person A miles up the road was driving slightly over the speed limit they might make it through an orange light that they otherwise would have missed. This might place a new car at the front of the queue with person B, and this person may then get hit by a driver that missed a red light, leading to their death. While the chain of events ultimately led to their death, and if Person A had driven the speed limit then person B would probably still be alive, I don’t think you can say person A is responsible.

      • Dave@lemmy.nz
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        6 months ago

        Is that saying aging, stress, etc somehow create alcohol in our bodies? If true, maybe we should be worried about futurama-like robots creating a matrix-like situation!

        • Deckweiss@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Some tiny amount is always naturally created. That is called “endogenous ethanol production” and is part of the normal methabolic process.

          The paper goes into ho the amount produced fluctuates with many factors (including the ones you mentioned) and the less is created, the more one carves for drinking alcohol.

          I find the idea funny that all humans (among other mammals) are basically perma microdosing alcohol.