In combination with antibiotics and (it seems) zinc it looks quite effective.
A doctor in NY has treated with that combination and is up to almost 700 COVID-19 patients without one dying _or needing a ventilator_.
Some relevant quotes:
>Dr. Zelenko said the whole treatment costs only $20 over a period of 5 days with 100% success. He defines success as “Not to die.” Dr. Zelenko first posted his Facebook video message last week calling on President Trump to “advise the country that they should be taking this medication.”
>There are many other success stories about hydroxychloroquine across the country. Last week, Dr. William Grace, an oncologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said they’ve not had a single death in their hospital because of hydroxychloroquine. “Thanks to hydroxychloroquine, we have not had a death in our hospital,’ Dr. Grace said.
This story was reported by Laura Ingraham on Fox News. Her tweet promoting this as a "cure" was immediately withdrawn by Twitter as "misleading". The 40 minute video interview with Zelenko, again on Fox News, was conducted not by a medical reporter, but by Rudy Giuliani. Zelenko goes on to make numerous huge dire public health predictions -- none of which a family practitioner has any business suggesting, especially in public on a national news outlet.
As always, consider the source of the information.
It's also very important to note that Zelenko was treating 700 unhospitalized patients; these were not cases severe enough to admit to a hospital. He treated them from his home (since he lost a lung to cancer years ago). So he never actually physically met with any of those 700 patients to monitor their progress.
In fact it's likely that many of these patients never tested positive, but simply self-reported as positive, further diluting the 'trial'.
And because 80% of positive COVID-19 cases are minor or even asymptomatic, the number of his patients that really _needed_ treatment falls from 700 down to, at most, 140 (20% of 700). That's a much smaller treatment effect that a large number like 700 would suggest.
It's also important to note that, apparently, Dr Zelenko treated sick people with medications that were NOT approved for the target disease. And he did so apparently without approval from any higher public health authority. In short, it appears that he experimented on his patients without authorization to do so from a public health or research authority.
Zelenko is a family medicine doctor, not a specialist in infectious disease or research. Thus it's very unlikely he wrote up an experimental design with proper safeguards, much less got it approved. With such poor experimental controls, it's impossible to interpret his results. What's more, if any of his patients later incur harm (like heart attacks from the chloroquine), such a laissez-faire approach to medicine will invite lawsuits galore.
A doctor in NY has treated with that combination and is up to almost 700 COVID-19 patients without one dying _or needing a ventilator_.
Some relevant quotes:
>Dr. Zelenko said the whole treatment costs only $20 over a period of 5 days with 100% success. He defines success as “Not to die.” Dr. Zelenko first posted his Facebook video message last week calling on President Trump to “advise the country that they should be taking this medication.”
>There are many other success stories about hydroxychloroquine across the country. Last week, Dr. William Grace, an oncologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said they’ve not had a single death in their hospital because of hydroxychloroquine. “Thanks to hydroxychloroquine, we have not had a death in our hospital,’ Dr. Grace said.
From:
https://techstartups.com/2020/03/28/dr-vladimir-zelenko-now-...
When people are dying in large numbers, sometimes "anecdotal evidence" (especially with large samples) is plenty.