# Straight dope on Chloroquine and Hydrochloroquine **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 19, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820 "2020-03-19T18:04:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/1 "2020-03-19T18:04:47Z")
While Trump is being bombastic as per usual, it’s not something he made up. I have been reading of its potential use since January. If it works great. But surely even if all it does is ease symptoms and reduce adverse outcomes won’t that be enough to perhaps greatly loosen the present lock down. Both are cheap, and safety is well attested. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/2 "2020-03-19T19:06:11Z")
French study on efficacy of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine cocktail: [HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE AND AZITHROMYCIN AS A TREATMENT OF COVID-19](https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/hydroxychloroquine-and-azithromycin-as-a-treatment-of-covid-19/) Seems to lower viral load. CQ has some heinous side effects and drug interactions, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/3 "2020-03-19T19:16:56Z")
And approximately 400 million people can’t use it because of a genetic difference. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/4 "2020-03-19T19:43:39Z")
1. It will have to be tested that it’s useful, first. 2. As **Gray Ghost** says, I’ve read that some anti-malarials are quite hard on the body as well, so “safe” isn’t necessarily a given when your average at-risk patient is over 65. 3. I’m not sure what quantities we have in supply. Africa might have large caches somewhere. France, with their continuing connections to Africa might have a decent supply on hand as well. I would expect both parties to hoard their supply. No idea what it would take for us to scale up production, if it was found to be worth doing. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/5 "2020-03-19T19:47:43Z")
Its on the WHO list of essential medications and almost certainly larges caches are available in any tropical or subtropical or hot area. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/6 "2020-03-19T20:02:52Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > But surely even if all it does is ease symptoms and reduce adverse outcomes won’t that be enough to perhaps greatly loosen the present lock down. I think this would be a bad effect. If people have the disease but feel well enough to go out, they’re going to be spreading it. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/7 "2020-03-19T20:09:32Z")
If the number of severe outcomes is reduced to the level of even bad flu season rather than the 20% currently, then that would almost certainly be accepted by all instead of the full global lockdown with no end in sight we are currently in. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/8 "2020-03-19T20:57:12Z")
I understand the president’s need to provide assurances to the public, but I worry that him talking about speculative treatments so early in the containment/mitigation mode we’re in will make people not care so much about following the CDC guidelines. He’s talking about these things like they are going to be on sale at CVS within a couple of weeks. And these treatments may not even work. He should not be raising people’s hopes when we still have months before their efficacy is understood. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/9 "2020-03-19T21:20:45Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Its on the WHO list of essential medications and almost certainly larges caches are available in any tropical or subtropical or hot area. 'Muricka ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/10 "2020-03-19T22:55:54Z")
The study was done on only 36 patients. That’s a very small number to decide to treat millions with a drug known to have a LOT of complicated and dire side effects. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/11 "2020-03-19T23:07:27Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > While Trump is being bombastic as per usual, it’s not something he made up. [Actually…](https://apnews.com/9eb91412da9380c61ecccbfea98845f9) > [@](#): > > President Donald Trump misstated the facts Thursday when he asserted that the Food and Drug Administration had just approved a decades-old malaria drug to treat patients infected by the coronavirus. After his FDA chief clarified that the drug still needs testing, Trump also overstated the drug’s potential upside in helping contain the outbreak. > [@](#): > > The drug, known chemically as chloroquine, has been available for decades to treat the mosquito-borne illness malaria. Technically, doctors can already prescribe the drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing. But Trump falsely suggested to reporters that the FDA had just cleared the drug specifically for the viral pandemic spreading in communities across the U.S. That would mean that the drug had met the FDA’s standards for safety and effectiveness. > > Minutes later, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn emphasized that the drug still needs testing to determine if it can help patients. He said chloroquine would have to be tested in “a large pragmatic clinical trial to actually gather that information.” > > Drug trials typically require hundreds or thousands of patients and, even when accelerated, take weeks or months to complete. In his remarks, Hahn reflected on his background as a cancer doctor and warned against giving patients “false hope” before drugs are fully vetted. > > While chloroquine has shown promise in preliminary laboratory studies, some experts are skeptical it will prove effective in human testing. Trump was his usual informed and confident self: > [@Donald Trump](#): > > I think it could be a game changer, and maybe not. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > But the FDA reiterated in a statement Thursday that there are “no FDA-approved therapeutics or drugs to treat, cure or prevent COVID-19.” > [@Donald Trump](#): > > If chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine works, or any of the other things that they’re looking at that are not quite as far out … your numbers are going to come down very rapidly. > [@](#): > > The drugs he is referring to are for treatment in patients already infected. That doesn’t prevent spread of the virus. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/12 "2020-03-20T00:14:28Z")
Chloroquine and hydrochloroquine are already being widely used in hospitals in NYC to treat COVID-19, with mixed results. One hospital has a protocol where they are only using it on patients who are already critically ill, which may be less effective. Not sure if anyone is using azithromycin yet like in that small French study. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/13 "2020-03-20T02:14:30Z")
Back when I was doing archaeology, chloroquine was needed. IIRC it was taken once a week and we arranged so everybody took it on Saturday night. Sundays were always miserable. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/14 "2020-03-20T03:23:51Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The study was done on only 36 patients. That’s a very small number to decide to treat millions with a drug known to have a LOT of complicated and dire side effects. Agreed. And we don’t even know if it works for this in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/15 "2020-03-20T05:39:58Z")
There’s enough interest in these that people with a known medical need for the stuff are having trouble finding it. A friend and her daughter both use it (for autoimmune disorders) and are getting quite worried; the daughter has almost run out, and her mom is talking about sharing and both going on half doses, which is risky. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-chloroquine-and-hydrochloroquine/849820/16 "2020-03-20T05:48:17Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Back when I was doing archaeology, chloroquine was needed. IIRC it was taken once a week and we arranged so everybody took it on Saturday night. Sundays were always miserable. When I was in the Navy, everyone on our ship had to take chloroquine on our way to Kenya. As you said, the next was utter misery.