Researchers urge halt in prescribing hydroxycholoroquine for COVID-19

Researchers urge a moratorium on prescribing chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, to treat or prevent COVID-19, and caution that the reassuring safety profile of hydroxychloroquine may be more apparent than real. Safety data derive from decades of prescriptions by clinicians, primarily for their patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, both of which are of greater prevalence in younger and middle age women, who are at very low risk of fatal heart outcomes due to hydroxychloroquine.