In recent weeks, Victoria has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases while other states have no or a small number of cases. Even though the Victorian government has acted quickly to re-enact restrictions around Victoria and lockdowns in certain postcodes and public housing towers, the government has been heavily criticised for how it has handled the outbreak. The outbreak can be traced to breaches in hotel quarantine where security guards were infected and carried the virus to their families. Even though these breaches are currently being investigated under a judicial inquiry, multiple factors have contributed in expanding the outbreak to a large number of people. In this blog post, I will talk about how the Victorian government has failed to update Victorians on the changing COVID-19 situation and restrictions before investigating some of the factors behind this problem. I will end the blog post by drawing some lessons that all states should follow to continually inform people on the changing COVID-19 situation.

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The use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 has been highly controversial with conflicting studies showing the presence or absence of efficacy against COVID-19. Most of these studies are marred by flaws in their methodology and results which have not been fixed in the rush to quickly publish results. These mistakes are picked up after publication which have generated outrage among different people and led to the removal or retraction of some papers from academic journals. These indicate that peer review, a process that is supposed to pick up and fix flaws in studies before they are published, has not been carefully followed which is negatively affecting the science and medicine of COVID-19.

In this article, I will talk about peer review and how this process has faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, I will talk about two papers: one paper has numerous flaws in its study but has not been retracted yet and the other paper had concerns which prompted the authors to retract the paper.

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Men at some time are masters of their fates;
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
(Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene III, L. 140-141)

The COVID-19 pandemic, generating cases and deaths daily, has impacted all parts of the world. Australia, along with the USA, proposed an independent inquiry into the origins and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has generated backlash from China which placed economic sanctions on Australia. Recently, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution calling all stakeholders to respond to and find the source of the pandemic. An inquiry was included in the resolution, but it would mainly focus on WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the expense of the responses of individual countries, including China, as outlined in the excerpt below (emphasis mine):

…Initiate, at the earliest appropriate moment, and in consultation with Member States, a stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation, including using existing mechanisms, as appropriate, to review experience gained and lessons learned from the WHO-coordinated international health response to COVID-19, including (i) the effectiveness of the mechanisms at WHO’s disposal; (ii) the functioning of the IHR and the status of implementation of the relevant recommendations of the previous IHR Review Committees; (iii) WHO’s contribution to United Nations-wide efforts; and (iv) the actions of WHO and their timelines pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, and make recommendations to improve global pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacity, including through strengthening, as appropriate, WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme…

Focusing mainly at WHO’s response to the pandemic overlooks the important roles that countries have played in perpetuating the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of blame is placed on China for not reporting the seriousness of the pandemic in a timely manner, but other countries must also share the blame for not preparing for the pandemic. In this blog post, I will explain the International Health Regulations (IHRs), a legal document that enforces countries to be prepared and responsive to disease outbreaks and pandemics. I will then explain how China and other countries such as the USA have violated the principles and rules of the IHRs to cause a pandemic that could not be contained.

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Disclaimer: This blog post is written for informational purposes only. It does not provide medical advice. If you are concerned about COVID-19, including the use of drugs against COVID-19, please seek advice from an accredited medical professional.

In the last blog post, I introduced chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and how they are used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and SLE. I also explained how these drugs can produce many side effects which explains why medical professionals need to conduct regular health checks when prescribing these drugs to their patients. In this blog post, we will explore the in vitro (cellular) and in vivo (human) studies of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 and explain how more detailed studies are required to show whether these drugs can be used to treat COVID-19.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has spread globally, not only producing a huge number of cases and deaths but also massively impacting all areas of daily life. As of this blog post, there are currently no approved vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. Existing drugs are tested to see if it can treat COVID-19, including chloroquine and its chemical relative hydroxychloroquine. Despite no sound evidence that they are effective against COVID-19, Donald Trump’s endorsement of these drugs has led some countries to produce and stockpile these drugs to combat COVID-19 and deaths due to self-medication of chloroquine. At the same time, patients that need these drugs to control their conditions fear that they will not be able to obtain them, leading to restrictions on who can prescribe and use these drugs and when these drugs can be used to treat COVID-19.

Over the next two blog posts, I will be talking about the science behind chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and why their use in COVID-19 is controversial. In this blog post, I will talk about what chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are, what diseases they treat and their side effects. In the next blog post, I will describe the studies on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 and argue that more comprehensive studies are needed to fully test their effectiveness.

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