@PaulSaxMD Unfortunately, even their made up endpoints aren't what they seem. In patients with elevated CRP there was no difference between the two (p = 0.42).The absolute decrease (6.9 vs 2.7 p <0.05), is in all patients,and merely reflective of higher baseline CRP (9.9 vs 7.4) in HCQ arm

@jpogue1 Also, they switched colors for this figure!

@PaulSaxMD Can’t understand why such a high toxic dose of HCQ was chosen. We have never used this dose in any other disease and we use a much lower dose in empirical Tx of COVID-19

@PaulSaxMD No zinc. Etcetera

@PaulSaxMD Answer how a nursing home had one death w/everyone infected (after they took hcq+zinc+zithro) while many others struggling and 20% death rates. 3800+ nursing home deaths in the US.

@PaulSaxMD Underwhelming to say the least. I call this a #lamechanger

@PaulSaxMD Hopefully if/when published, a reviewer will require documentation of PCR assay used and information about qPCR cycle threshold values including baseline, cutoff, trends, and whether these differed between treatment groups.

@PaulSaxMD Mean day from disease onset to randomization = 16.6. Arguably, most of these patients were on the road to recovery at that point. Wonder how the results would have changed with earlier enrollment 🤔🧐🤷🏼‍♂️

@PaulSaxMD "A significant efficacy of HCQ on alleviating symptoms was observed when the confounding effects of anti-viral agents were removed in the post-hoc analysis". I suspect a bit of paracetamol (or acetaminophen for the Americans!) could blow HCQ out of the water.....

@PaulSaxMD at least it was intention to treat and not intention to hide(patients you did not like the results in)🤣🤣

@PaulSaxMD 81% (122/150) received other antivirals, including: lopinavir-ritonavir, arbidol, oseltamivir, virazole, entecavir, ganciclovir and/or interferon-alpha. How many got what is not listed.

@PaulSaxMD Wish we could stop all the pretending of antiviral effect and consigned it back to the rheumatologists who know it works for inflammation

@PaulSaxMD Exactly!

@PaulSaxMD Plaquenil, colchicine, tolicizumab. We are working on inflammation people!!!

@PaulSaxMD Faster resolution of symptoms in the second week! The median duration of symptom resolution was not significantly different. Basically, this paper says people should use HCQ to normalize their CRP and lymphocyte count faster.

@PaulSaxMD The HCQ dose from the study is quite scary: 1200mg loading dose x 3 days then 800mg daily for 2-3 weeks! Surprisingly, 10% diarrhea adverse events from HCQ group not heart issue

@PaulSaxMD @EdselSalvana

@PaulSaxMD @V2019N Well yes that’s why we use it in rheumatology

@PaulSaxMD @V2019N So why wasnt Zinc phosphate used with HCQ in China? Inquiring minds want know.

@PaulSaxMD @DrSenait I am not a medical professional and would have been happy if it worked. My question is will RA patients be able to get their prescriptions any time soon? I love someone who is in severe pain 😢