RECOVERY: The plot sickens

By Edmund Fordham

MY last article on the termination of one ‘arm’ of theUK’s ‘RECOVERY’ clinical trials of Covid-19 treatments reported the car-crash interview given to France Soir by Professor Martin Landray, deputy chief investigator of the Oxford University project, which raised questions on the dosage of hydroxychloroquine used. These dosages were widely suspected to be toxic. The story did not end there.

Stung by charges that Landray thought that hydroxychloroquine was used in amoebic dysentery, and might have confused hydroxychloroquine with the hydroxyquinolines – totally different drugs – chief investigator Professor Peter Horby swung into action. He chose to brief the French Communist paper Liberation, vehemently denying any confusion. France Soir was mis-reporting: Landray had meant amoebic hepatic abscess (AHA) for which the older chloroquine has been used, at heavy doses, citing WHO guidance from 1995. France Soir stuck to its guns: Landray had said amoebic dysentery, twice. An audio clip of the interview was released on Monday; judge for yourself.