"Not A Piece Of Evidence On HCQ's Benefits": Lancet Editor To NDTV On COVID-19

As nations across the world are scampering to find a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, there are concerns over how these efforts are being coordinated. Top medical journal Lancet's editor-in-chief Dr Richard Horton told NDTV that the efforts to make a vaccine for COVID-19 are "disjointed".

"The world's efforts at finding a vaccine are extremely disjointed. Each doing their own research. There has to be some sort of coordination in the efforts under the leadership of WHO (World Health Organisation) where all countries coordinate. Right now the creative flourishing of so many vaccine candidates is going on in an uncoordinated way. It will be a very confused situation," Dr Horton said.

He said he is optimistic that the world could advance the date of finding a vaccine against the highly infectious disease by the end of this year. Dr Horton said there are a number of interesting ideas that people are working on across the world - they are smokers having a lesser chance of testing positive due to nicotine blocking receptor cells, and people in countries where BCG vaccine has been administered such as India being seen as more resilient to the disease.

"There are a number of hypotheses. One is that in countries like India where there is a BCG vaccine, COVID-19 cases are less. There is another, which is now being tested in France, which says that those who smoke might have a reduced risk of COVID-19. So there will be medical trials using nicotine patches to see if nicotine could be used to prevent COVID-19. Right now we have a whole bunch of ideas that are very interesting, but to be completely honest, there is no solid evidence for either," Dr Horton said.

He extended his argument by mentioning the point on hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug manufactured a lot by India - the whole world seems to be asking for it as a possible solution to COVID-19.

"There is not one piece of evidence that hydroxychloroquine had any beneficial effect," Dr Horton said.

The Lancet editor said he was a little less optimistic about efforts made in the areas of rapid testing kits, in the context of India developing one. "I would be a little less optimistic since these tests require sophisticated laboratories that are not available in all countries," Dr Horton said, adding very little is known about this invisible enemy even now.