CNN Reports “Surprise Results” When New Study Finds Hydroxychloroquine Lowers Death Rate For Covid-19

A surprising new study found that the controversial antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine helped patients better survive in the hospital.

A team at Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan said Thursday its study of 2,541 hospitalized patients found that those given hydroxychloroquine were much less likely to die.

Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of infectious disease for Henry Ford Health System, said 26% of those not given hydroxychloroquine died, compared to 13% of those who got the drug. The team looked back at everyone treated in the hospital system since the first patient in March.

"Overall crude mortality rates were 18.1% in the entire cohort, 13.5% in the hydroxychloroquine alone group, 20.1% among those receiving hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin, 22.4% among the azithromycin alone group, and 26.4% for neither drug," the team wrote in a report published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

It's a surprising finding because several other studies have found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine, a drug originally developed to treat and prevent malaria. President Donald Trump touted the drug heavily, but later studies found not only did patients not do better if they got the drug, they were more likely to suffer cardiac side effects.

The US Food and Drug Administration withdrew its emergency use authorization for the drug earlier this month and trials around the world, including trials sponsored by the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health, were halted.

Many Americans, politicians, and members of the medical community are calling out Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been adamantly against the drug, and had this to say in May via The Hill:

Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said there's no evidence that shows the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is effective at treating COVID-19.

"Clearly the scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy for it," Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor, said during a CNN interview. 

Fauci said evidence also shows the likelihood that the drug can cause severe irregular heart rhythms.

"There was suspicion of that for a while, but as data comes in, it becomes more clear," Fauci said.

The pronouncements mark Fauci's strongest warnings yet against the drug and puts him at odds with President Trump, who has embraced the drug as a "game changer" and a "miracle."

Earlier this month, Trump even said he had been taking hydroxychloroquine, in combination with zinc, as a way to prevent getting COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He called the research on hospitalized patients “a Trump enemy statement.”