A drug infamously touted by Donald Trump has been linked to nearly 17,000 Covid deaths in a new scientific study.

Researchers say that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was prescribed to patients during the first wave of Covid-19 “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits.”

The French study estimated that 16,990 patients in the US, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Turkey may have died as a result of the drug.

The study has been published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.

Researchers say the data used comes from a study published in the Nature scientific journal, which reported that there was an 11 per cent increase in mortality rate linked to the drug’s prescription.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Even if 10% of those people took it because he told them to, that’s 1700 deaths on his head.

    I haven’t even killed one person.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I haven’t even killed one person.

      Have you even made the effort?

      People are so lazy these days.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Sorry, I’m a millennial. I can’t afford a gun because I buy so much avocado toast and coffee.

        • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Heck, when I was a kid, people were buying rocks with googly eyes on them. You can’t kill a person with a rock if you just put in a little effort! Have to explain everything to kids these days.

          • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            As a millennial, I my genx/bb father never stuck around, so “throwing” is only something I can do with garbage—in the correct receptacle, compost, trash, cans, plastic, glass. Don’t tell me it goes to the same spot, I can’t hear you with my AirPods in. La la la

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
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      10 months ago

      If you’re counting indirect deaths, then you’ve probably been responsible for someone’s death and not known it. (Edit: If it’s not obvious, this is supposed to be a bit tongue in cheek)

      • nfh@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        There’s a big difference between the kind of causality where you cause someone to leave their house 5 minutes later than they would have, ultimately resulting in a fatal car crash that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and people dying because they did something you encouraged them to do

        • Dave@lemmy.nz
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          10 months ago

          Yes, in hindsight, I don’t think “responsible” was the right word.

      • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’ve always wondered about that. I worked at walmart for years. Lots of alcohol. Did I help a drunk driving death? Or who knows what else. Lots of kitchen knives and shit like that. What about hammers? Lots of stuff I sold could be used to kill a person.

        • Dave@lemmy.nz
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          10 months ago

          If you sold a lot of alcohol, you’ve almost certainly contributed to a death. Between drunk driving, stupid alcohol decisions, and cancer, alcohol is pretty much the most dangerous drug we have in terms of societal damage (because its usage is so widespread).

          I probably shouldn’t have used the word “responsible”, though. If person A miles up the road was driving slightly over the speed limit they might make it through an orange light that they otherwise would have missed. This might place a new car at the front of the queue with person B, and this person may then get hit by a driver that missed a red light, leading to their death. While the chain of events ultimately led to their death, and if Person A had driven the speed limit then person B would probably still be alive, I don’t think you can say person A is responsible.

            • Dave@lemmy.nz
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              10 months ago

              Is that saying aging, stress, etc somehow create alcohol in our bodies? If true, maybe we should be worried about futurama-like robots creating a matrix-like situation!

              • Deckweiss@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Some tiny amount is always naturally created. That is called “endogenous ethanol production” and is part of the normal methabolic process.

                The paper goes into ho the amount produced fluctuates with many factors (including the ones you mentioned) and the less is created, the more one carves for drinking alcohol.

                I find the idea funny that all humans (among other mammals) are basically perma microdosing alcohol.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          You most certainly sold alcohol to alcoholics, which contributed to their slow deaths, but that isn’t your fault, because if you wouldn’t have sold it to them, they would have gotten it elsewhere. That’s how addiction works.