Peter McCullough on health: what the evidence says · JRE #1747
“currently we're up to 300 completed studies with hydroxychloroquine, 32 early treatment studies. And it does have an effect size or an efficacy early in treatment of about 64% globally across the studies.”
What the evidence says
Large, randomized controlled trials found hydroxychloroquine ineffective against COVID-19. The UK RECOVERY trial, one of the largest randomized trials of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, found no significant difference in 28-day mortality between hydroxychloroquine and usual care (27.0% vs. 25.0%) and closed its hydroxychloroquine arm early after an interim analysis found a lack of efficacy. The WHO's Solidarity trial similarly found hydroxychloroquine produced little or no reduction in mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to standard of care, leading WHO to discontinue the treatment arm in July 2020. The FDA has warned against using hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside a hospital or clinical trial due to the risk of heart rhythm problems. These major trials focused on hospitalized patients rather than early outpatient treatment, so they do not directly refute a claim about early-treatment efficacy specifically. The '64% efficacy' figure McCullough cites traces to aggregation websites that pool large numbers of small, often non-randomized or non-peer-reviewed studies with methodological weaknesses, rather than to a peer-reviewed meta-analysis of high-quality randomized trials; such aggregated figures are not endorsed by regulatory agencies or major medical journals. The scientific and regulatory consensus, based on the largest and most rigorous trials available, is that hydroxychloroquine does not provide meaningful benefit for COVID-19 treatment and carries cardiac risks.
- Effect of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19 - PubMed · government
- WHO discontinues hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir treatment arms for COVID-19 · government
- FDA cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems · government