The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday decided to temporarily quit allotting corona patients for trials of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an anti-malarial drug that was touted by US President Donald Trump as a covid prophylactic—“game changer" was his term—and exported by India to the US.
What was once a source of hope is now riddled with controversy. A series of trials in the West have suggested that not only does the drug not help fight the disease that’s sickened more than 5 million people globally and left over 300,000 dead, it may even be harmful.
Some studies indicate that it tends to push up a patient’s heart rate, which may affect his or her vulnerability to covid-19.