Until then, the The first vaccines approved in the United States, by BioNTech / Pfizer, were being distributed by Michigan, using a new technology designed to activate the body’s own immune system to recognize the virus and fight it. A second vaccine, from Moderna, was approved and shipped in mid-December.
In closing the hydroxychloroquine study, Henry Ford said he was shifting his focus to vaccines as the “primary strategy to protect our frontline workers”, according to a statement sent to Bridge Michigan by email attributed to Dr. John McKinnon, infectious disease specialist at Henry Ford Health System and principal co-investigator for WHIP COVID-19.
Great hopes disappear
When the study was first announced in April, Detroit residents were desperate. COVID deaths in the city accounted for almost a quarter of the state’s total, although the city has only 7% of Michigan’s population. The first to respond were paying a particularly high price. Days earlier, Mayor Duggan revealed that nearly 500 police officers and more than 100 civilians from the police force, and more than 100 city firefighters, remained in quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19.
The mayor and Henry Ford pleaded with officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration to speed up the approval of the trial.
“If it works, we will save the lives of the first respondents worldwide,” said Duggan in the ad.
Initially, the antimalarial drug looked promising, with small studies indicating that it had some antiviral effects to treat people with COVID-19.
In July, Henry Ford researchers said they found that hydroxychloroquine, alone or combined with the antibiotic azithromycin, improved survival rates among 2,541 Henry Ford patients hospitalized early with COVID-19. President Trump tweeted with approval on the study as part of his broader effort to find a solution to the deadly virus.