During unprecedented times disinformation is running rampant. What seems to be the subject of this mis spreading of information is how to treat Covid-19. A drug often floated around is hydroxychloroquine. This drug has been used to treat malaria and lupus disease. News outlets and even the Federal Government have been pushing this drug to help ease the recent pandemic. The question remains, does this even work?

Earlier during the beginning of the pandemic the President stated that hydroxychloroquine could be a possible treatment for Covid-19. Now this leads to massive widespread confusion. This is when many medical research groups research the possible effectiveness of this drug. Hydroxychloroquine has been around since the 1950’s and is used for treatments of malaria, lupus, and in some cases arthritis. Recently lab tests on this effect against Covid-19 have been largely inconclusive. Yet the White House and news outlets are pushing this drug claiming that usage in hospitals are slowing down the effects of Covid-19.

Now this usage has been proven to be somewhat bad for treating current hospitalized patients. A recent French study showed that hydroxychloroquine does not improve the survival rate of Covid patients. The evidence for the pushing of this drug is that it did work, just in a test tube. The drug has been tested in labs for a while, and in a tested environment it can work. It just does not seem to translate over to human testing. Taking it to prevent Covid-19 has been proven to cause side effects of nausea, vomiting and or stomach pain. Many groups are desperately looking for ways to treat this virus despite claims from the White House. The FDA is even claiming that this has not been proven effective and urges not to try it.

So no, do not try this at home. While it is being tested that does not mean it has been proven. Now more than ever it is important to take a closer look at information being put forth in the news. Misinformation will only lead to mass panic and really bad consequences. Many sources are differing with varying claims about the ongoing pandemic.  Take the news with a grain of salt and look at it logistically.  Misinformation especially about drugs for an ongoing disease should not be blindly followed. For the consequences of bad information are just as bad