Questions raised over hydroxychloroquine study which caused WHO to halt trials for Covid-19

Australian researchers query origin of data used for Lancet study, but stress there is no evidence drug is a safe or effective treatment

The study, led by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston, examined patients in hospitals around the world, including in Australia. It said researchers gained access to data from five hospitals recording 600 Australian Covid-19 patients and 73 Australian deaths as of 21 April.

But data from Johns Hopkins University shows only 67 deaths from Covid-19 had been recorded in Australia by 21 April. The number did not rise to 73 until 23 April. The data relied upon by researchers to draw their conclusions in the Lancet is not readily available in Australian clinical databases, leading many to ask where it came from.

Questions have been raised by Australian infectious disease researchers about a study published in the Lancet which prompted the World Health Organization to halt global trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.

The study published on Friday found Covid-19 patients who received the malaria drug were dying at higher rates and experiencing more heart-related complications than other virus patients. The large observational study analysed data from nearly 15,000 patients with Covid-19 who received the drug alone or in combination with antibiotics, comparing this data with 81,000 controls who did not receive the drug.

The findings prompted researchers from around the world to reassess their own clinical trials of the drug for preventing and treating Covid-19. The World Health Organization halted all its trials involving hydroxychloroquine due to the concerns raised in the study about its efficacy and safety. It was once viewed as among the most promising medicines to treat the virus, though no study to date has found this to be the case, and the drug can have toxic side-effects. The Australian Department of Health had been stockpiling millions of doses of the drug in case clinical trials found it proved useful.

The federal health department confirmed to Guardian Australia that the data collected on notifications of Covid-19 in the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System was not the source for informing the trial.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/may/28/questions-raised-over-hydroxychloroquine-study-which-caused-who-to-halt-trials-for-covid-19

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Bizarre Child Sacrifice Confirms The Aztecs Were Terrifyingly Badass

https://twitter.com/IFLScience/status/1266044916830011393

NJ NAACP Leader Calls For Paterson Mail-In Vote to Be Canceled Amid Corruption Claims

A Paterson NAACP leader said the recent city council vote-by-mail election was allegedly so flawed that the results should be thrown out and a new election ordered.

“Invalidate the election. Let’s do it again,” said Rev. Kenneth Clayton said amid reports more that 20 percent of all ballots were disqualified, some in connection with voter fraud allegations.

“These kinds of acts make people not want to vote anymore. They feel disenfranchised, disconnected that their votes don’t count, and that is not fair to people," he said.

Rev. Clayton said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will soon be filing a written complaint to Gov. Phil Murphy — who ordered the vote-by-mail only election — and State Attorney General Grubir Grewal.

Paterson activist Ernest Rucker said his experience this election is an example of the kind of corruption that allegedly took place. Rucker said he never received a ballot but that election records show someone mailed in a ballot in his name.

“I was robbed of the right to vote or not vote,” Rucker said. “I was disenfranchised.”

New Jersey Deputy Assembly Speaker Benjie Wimberly and his family had a different issue. “My vote and my wife and two sons’ votes did not count in this past municipal election,” he said.

Wimberly said he is a supporter of Gov. Murphy but given the history of vote-by-mail controversies, the governor should have done more to allow in-person voting and to ensure safeguards were in place for those ballots sent by mail. That one in five ballots were eliminated, some due to alleged corruption, Wimberly said he was "fed up with this … That’s how you disenfranchise voters. That’s the bottom line.”

Wimberly said he was still waiting for an explanation from the Board of Elections as to why his family’s votes were set aside. He said if the issue is a signature matching the one on file, it's possible for signatures can change over the years. He said the voting booths should be open for elections, adding that if people can shop in supermarkets and liquor stores using checkout machines, they can do it for elections too.

“It is what is right for the people,” Wimberly said. “We need in-person voting machines with social distancing.”

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/nj-naacp-leader-calls-for-paterson-mail-in-vote-to-be-canceled-amid-fraud-claims/2435162/

Russia WILL NOT ban hydroxychloroquine, drug taken by US President Trump, for use in treating Covid-19

Russia’s Health Ministry announced it will not ban hydroxychloroquine, seen by some as potentially dangerous. The drug, touted by US President Trump, has been suspended for use in treating Covid-19 in France, Italy, and Belgium.

On Thursday, the Russian Health Ministry stated on its website that hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness and safety in the treatment of coronavirus is continually being monitored, but the ministry is not taking any steps towards outlawing it. This decision is in sharp contrast to moves made by some European countries which, due to safety concerns, have completely stopped the prescription of the drug to fight the coronavirus.

“Several drugs are used to treat patients with Covid-19,” a ministry statement said. “Among these drugs is hydroxychloroquine, which, due to its anti-inflammatory effect and effect on the immune system, has been used for decades to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.”

According to the Health Ministry, recommendations to use HCQ have come from various foreign studies confirming its effectiveness, and it has been included in several national and international clinical guidelines, including in Russia. As it stands, Russian doctors are able to give the drug to patients who provide informed consent, taking into account potential side effects and risk factors.

“According to the results of monitoring the safety of hydroxychloroquine drugs during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Russian Federation, there were no fatal outcomes associated with rhythm disturbance in patients with HCQ,” the ministry said.

The drug, most often used to treat malaria, rose to prominence on March 19 when US President Donald Trump promoted the medication as a potential treatment for Covid‑19. On May 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it would be suspending its hydroxychloroquine testing out of what it called an “abundance of caution.” HCQ was just one part of a more extensive study of experimental coronavirus treatments.

https://www.rt.com/russia/490018-russia-not-ban-drug-covid19/