Veterans groups and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin are criticizing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients at its hospitals despite questions about the drug’s effectiveness and potentially dangerous side effects.
VA officials said last week that the hospitals had given the drug to some 1,300 people infected by the novel coronavirus.
Charity Hardison, a spokeswoman for four VA hospitals in the Chicago area and downstate Danville, declined to say whether those facilities had used the drug to treat COVID-19 cases thus far. However, she said in an email: “In certain cases, medical providers and patients want to try hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, and FDA guidance, which VA follows, permits that.”
Illinois AMVETS Executive Director Keith Wetherell said VA hospitals shouldn’t use the drug as a COVID-19 treatment unless its value is proved.
“We don’t appreciate veterans being given a drug that hasn’t proven to be effective and or safe,” he said. “Veterans aren’t supposed to be experimental beings when it comes to these things.”
Durbin, a Democrat, sent a statement to the Tribune pointing to “serious questions about the safety of prescribing hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients.”
“Our veterans deserve the very best care possible and if the science suggests that this drug isn’t a safe and effective treatment against this virus, then the Trump administration must explain why it’s choosing to ignore that guidance and potentially put our veterans’ health at risk,” the statement read.
The drug, an anti-malaria medication also used to treat arthritis and other conditions, has become a political flash point during the pandemic. President Donald Trump has pushed for its use to fight the virus, calling it a “game changer” and saying he had taken it himself.
Various trials of the drug have been launched. Locally, Cook County Health and Hospitals System announced a study this month.
Some studies already have cast doubt on its effectiveness, and doctors have warned of potentially lethal side effects. On Monday, the World Health Organization announced it would temporarily suspend a trial of the drug to review its potential benefits and harms when used against COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, told CNN Wednesday that “the scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy for it.”
Earlier this month, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called on VA officials to explain the use of the drug to fight COVID-19.
VA officials wrote that about 1,300 patients with COVID-19 had been given hydroxychloroquine since the start of the pandemic response, in addition to 7,500 who received it for other conditions. The VA response denied that the department was pressured by the White House or any agency to prescribe the drug and laid out plans for studies on the drug’s effects on the virus.
Locally, Hardison said VA hospitals in the Chicago area and Danville would not be involved in those studies. She also sent the Tribune a link to video of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Fox News accusing Schumer of “trying to deflect attention from what is going on in one’s own backyard.” Wilkie noted there have been thousands of deaths at nursing homes in New York.
Jeremy Butler, CEO of the New York-based Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the VA should release more information on outcomes for patients who receive the drug. He also voiced concerns about the medication being given to veterans, a population with specific health issues, including ailments related to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War.
Butler asked why VA officials have seemed to advocate for the drug, rather than acknowledging questions about it.
“It seems like (VA officials) are almost adamant about … it being a viable treatment option,” Butler said.
dhinkel@chicagotribune.com
