A Manitoba researcher worries people in the province could shy away from enrolling in a drug trial because of the politics attached to the medication being studied.
The study hopes to find out if taking the drug hydroxychloroquine can help prevent frontline healthcare workers — who are most at risk of coming into contact with COVID-19 positive patients — from getting the disease.
“Some of the challenges have been that hydroxychloroquine, unfortunately, has been a very politically charged kind of drug in this COVID-19 epidemic,” said Dr. Sylvain Lother, an infectious disease and critical care physician at the U of M and a sub-investigator on the drug trial.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that he has been taking the malaria drug to protect against coronavirus for about a week and a half, despite warnings from his own government that it should only be administered for COVID-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side-effects.
Trump spent weeks pushing the drug as a potential cure or prevention for COVID-19 against the cautionary advice of many of his administration’s top medical professionals. The FDA has cautioned against using the drug outside of a clinical setting because of a potential for harmful side effects when taking with other medications.
“Very early on in early April, many people on social media and in mainstream media were touting hydroxychloroquine to be a game changer and thinking that this drug was going to completely revolutionize the pandemic,” Lother said.
“And because of that, people have sort of developed very polarized opinions about hydroxychloroquine.”
The trial is part of a collaboration of researchers on both sides of the Canada-U.S, border.
the University of Manitoba is heading up a part of the study here in conjunction with the University of Minnesota in the United States and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.
Hydroxychloroquine has been used for decades to prevent and treat malaria, as well as in treatment for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
The study is a pre-exposure prophylaxis trial, which means it’s looking to see if the use of the drug before being exposed to the virus can prevent the disease.
“We view it as a tool in the whole toolbox of things that we use to prevent ourselves from getting infection,” said Lother, who works directly with COVID-19 patients.
“We know that even in the context of wearing appropriate PPE, that healthcare workers are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 across the world.”
Lother said the study aims to include 3500 participants on both sides of the border. So far in the U.S there are just over 1400 people enrolled in the trial. Lother said since launching the trial in Canada last week there have been just three applicants from Manitoba.
“It’s been politically charged and that has prevented us from enrolling as quickly as we would have liked to over the last few weeks, so we hope that, you know, people will see past that.”
It’s not just Manitoba seeing a lull in participation, Lother said, recruitments for hydroxychloroquine studies have become an issue on both sides of the border.
“We know that for sure it’s been a problem in both Canada and the US because we have been studying hydroxychloroquine now for several weeks in different populations with different studies.”
“And initially we had a lot of large amounts of enrolments in these trials. And we’ve really seen a flattening of the curve in terms of our enrolment just from different opinions that have been coming out,” he said.
Despite earlier warnings from the FDA, researchers say the drug is safe if used in a clinical trial because participants are screened and monitored closely. The drug has also safely been used to prevent other infections, like malaria, for years.
Lother said in addition to the polarizing political views on the drug, the relatively low number of COVID-19 cases in the province may also be a factor.
“Some of that initial fear might be dwindling away. And for that reason, people might feel a little less vulnerable than they did initially,” he said.
Lother said healthcare workers still face a significant risk, and studying the drug could be very helpful for preparing for a second wave of the virus if it occurs.
“We hope that enrolment happens quickly because these are things that we need answers on as soon as we can in order for us to be prepared.”
Many people may also be avoiding a clinical trial because of the fear of receiving a placebo, Lother said. He speculates that some healthcare workers may want to take the drug anyway, but that could prevent scientists from learning if it’s effective.
“Because the bottom line is we don’t know if this medication works or not. That’s why we’re studying it. And we need good science to do that. There’s a chance that it could work. But we need to prove that scientifically with trials.”
On Thursday, Manitoba’s chief public health officer said taking the drug only makes sense as part of a clinical trial.
“The only reason for using [hydroxychloroquine] for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 would be as part of a clinical trial because there isn’t evidence that it’s effective in preventing or treating a COVID-19,” Dr. Brent Roussin said.
Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization
Published Apr 22, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.
“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.
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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.
“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.
The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.
This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”
Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.
But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.
He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.
His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.
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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.
“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”
He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.
“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.
He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.
“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.
“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”
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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.
When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.
Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.
Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.
Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.
I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.
Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.
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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.
The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.
“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.
But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”
When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.
He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.
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LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.
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