SEATTLE –A large study coordinated by the University of Washington found that people who took hydroxychloroquine were just as likely to get COVID-19 as those who took a placebo, adding to growing evidence that the drug frequently promoted by President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to work against the novel coronavirus.
Nearly 800 people at several sites across the country participated in the trial, which was funded with $9.5 million from the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, a research fund created by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others.
Participants all had a family member or close contact who had tested positive for the infection, and were randomly assigned to get either a daily tablet of hydroxychloroquine or placebo over a 14-day period. The volunteers swabbed their noses every day and sent the specimens to a lab for analysis to see if they became infected.
The results are being presented today at IDWeek 2020, the annual scientific meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America.
