https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32173110
That's incorrect.
I don't know how these people died from taking chloroquine phosphate, it is quite safe when taken in normal dosages. What they had may have been contaminated (since it seems to be for aquariums!) or they took wildly more than needed. People with rheumatoid arthritis take chloroquine phosphate for years at a time.
It seems like a promising treatment, but in vitro effectiveness often doesn't translate to actual effectiveness.
I'm not saying they shouldn't use it, in an emergency sometimes experimental therapies make sense.
In these times, though, I think rational science is also important. We do not yet have studies of it's effectiveness in treating COVID-19.
Also from your link:
>CONCLUSIONS: There is rationale, pre-clinical evidence of effectiveness and evidence of safety from long-time clinical use for other indications to justify clinical research on chloroquine in patients with COVID-19. However, clinical use should either adhere to the Monitored Emergency Use of Unregistered Interventions (MEURI) framework or be ethically approved as a trial as stated by the World Health Organization. Safety data and data from high-quality clinical trials are urgently needed.
I genuinely think it's valuable (in our post fact world) to be able to tell the difference between the concepts of "evidence to support further study" and evidence of effectiveness in a particular application.
Edit: New thread here at HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22671404
https://epidemio.wiv-isp.be/ID/Documents/Covid19/COVID-19_In...
Seriously? It seems like every few days a new study pops up here.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41421-020-0156-0.pdf
https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/20...
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04307693
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092485792...
It seemed like there was no shortage of praise for this drug in the media, until president Trump mentioned it and then all the talking heads did a complete 180.
Also happening in Nigeria: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/23/headlines/two_nigeria...
Note that there doesn't appear to be any evidence yet that chloroquine is effective in COVID-19 treatment. So far it has been studied only for other types of coronavirus.