Two retrospective studies of COVID-19 patients in New York found no impact of hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin on risk of intubation or death. Interest in hydroxychloroquine and chloro-quine with or without azithromycin in treating patients with COVID-19 has been high since early reports suggested that using these drugs improved outcomes. This interest intensified with the FDA decision to issue an emergency-use authorization to allow their use for this indication. To help assess the actual efficacy of hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin, two groups of researchers undertook reviews of patients with COVID-19 admitted to New York hospitals between March and April 2020, when these agents were being used commonly to treat the infection. In the study by Geleris and colleagues, the primary analysis compared the risk for intubation or death in hydroxychloroquine recipients and nonrecipients, with an adjustment for predictors of respiratory failure and weighting according to propensity score for the probability of hydroxychloroquine use. For Rosenberg and colleagues, hospital mortality was the primary outcome.
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