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Comment by xenonite | Hacker News Reader

Do you mean the non-prescripted dispensing of hydroxychloroquine? I think it is quite reasonable to rely on prescriptions by a doctor. Swedish hospitals stopped giving hydroxychloroquine to patients a month ago as it has more negative side effects than benefits.

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There have been a lot of studies funded for various drugs. Honestly at this point, it seems like they're just throwing every compound that's been approved as safe, and that might show some hope for interaction, at this thing in hope something works.

That's describing the development effort for every drug, ever.

I did read about how Swedish hospitals stopped using chloroquine for COVID-19 due to severe side effects. I've googled, but I'm unable to find anything definitive regarding whether or not Sweden has given up on hydroxychloroquine, which seems to have less severe side effects. In the US, hydroxychloroquine can only be obtained when prescribed by a doctor (depending on which US State you live in, your governor may or may not allow it to be dispensed outside of a hospital setting). Even though hydroxychloroquine has been around for over 70 years, there's risk associated with it. It's obvious to me that the front-line doctors at Yale are throwing everything they can think of at this virus to keep as many people out of the ICU as possible. They've obviously made a lot of progress in a very short time. It reminds me of the way some startups with minimal runway develop an MVP and then keep iterating in an attempt to get better results. It's a harsh environment, but that's what forces people to innovate quickly, and sometimes succeed. As they say in the movies: GO! FIGHT! WIN!

AFAIK Sweden says no to both.

The Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket) said on April 2nd that chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine should be used for the Covid-19 indication within clinical studies only, otherwise only for the approved indications (arthritis, lupus and similar). This is because the available data does not offer robust conclusions on efficacy and safety. [1]

This is in line with EMA recommendations, which defer use within emergency programs to national authorities. [2] And in Sweden's case they say "no".

[1] https://www.lakemedelsverket.se/sv/nyheter/klorokin-och-hydr...

[2] https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid-19-chloroquine-hydro...

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