The article on Page 5A of the Saturday, Aug. 15, edition of The Lima News — “Pharmacy board, hydroxychloroquine and Covid-19” — was a welcome addition to the front page article “Hundreds blast ban of virus drug.”
The page 5 article offered some insight to the relative safety of hydroxychloroquine, and does a good job answering questions.
I have been following the statistical information on Ohio right along and have found interesting numbers. For example, as of Aug. 11th, 97-percent of the total deaths occur in the age groups 50 and over. They represent 39.5 percent of the total cases and 76.4 percent of hospitalizations. This also represents a 40.1 percent chance of death once they enter the hospital.
Interestingly enough is that in the 80-plus group, there are 6.7 percent of the total cases, 31.1 percent of total hospitalizations and 28.2 percent of total deaths; however, within the 80-plus group they have a 90.7 percent chance of death upon being hospitalized.
With a 90-percent chance of dying, once brought into the hospital, this group should be given the drug out of a chance to increase their survival. If given the drug automatically upon entrance into the hospital, especially for the 80-plus age group, it seems the percentage of death should indicate a success or failure of the drug. This may be an armchair analysis, but the numbers represented are those supplied by the state on a daily basis.
It seems to me, if you want to see if hydroxychloroquine is effective, then the people 80 and over should be given the drug to see how effective it really is.
Richard Schuck, Delphos
