Not in defense of anybody: When an off label drug or treatment is offered as a hail mary pass (desperate condition, no other available treatments), some patients will die anyway, some will improve. I don't know at what point, if any, it could be determined that hydroxy hastened death in a patient with Covid-19 respiratory failure not responding to mechanical ventilation.
The hydroxy is not a new drug. It is approved for treating malaria and also approved for treating lupus. Generally, use in off label, desperate cases such as the respiratory failure with Covid-19 would require special approval. Hydroxy use in approved conditions (malaria, lupus) has well known significant risk of cardiac complications, which must be explained when offering to the patient, called "informed consent." The patient should be under close medical supervision, which anyone hospitalized in respiratory failure from Covid-19 would be.
The drug quinine, related to hydroxy, used to be on the market for leg cramps (by prescription). Dialysis patients could take one or two before dialysis and it helped prevent or minimize leg cramps. Suddenly we were told there would be no more quinine to give the patients, had been taken off the market.
My huband (not a dialysis patient) is subject to major hard leg cramps at night. Often to the point of tears. For years he was able to get quinine by prescription, one capsule at night or when the cramps hit. Suddenly it was taken off the market, much to his dismay. We found a source in Canada. They had it ready to ship but his MD here refused to write the prescription.
I didn't know at the time, but like hydroxy, the quinine was also found to have significant risk of cardiac complications, the reason it was taken off the market in the US.
