By TATIANA PROPHET

A professor of epidemiology at the Yale University School of Medicine has reviewed all 16 studies of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, and not only does he state that it will save thousands of lives threatened by Covid-19, but recommends it be used — with screening — as soon as possible to treat the disease.

In a passionate, at times pithy manuscript, Dr. Harvey A. Risch showed how the studies showing no benefit of hydroxychloroquine were looking at the wrong stage of the disease and evaluating an unnecessarily high dosage. He called one study “a fishing expedition” and another “deeply flawed.”

Dr. Risch, a cancer researcher as well as epidemiologist, concluded that “all available evidence” points to the general safety of the drug in combination with an antibiotic and “preferably zinc,” thus recommending it to become the standard of care.

When all other physicians have been silenced, including Dr. Oz, either being censored or walking back their enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine, why is Dr. Risch one of the few voices still offering a full-throated recommendation of this drug, touted in March by President Trump as a game changer? Evidence. The studies that have been highly publicized, including the VA Hospital study and the Lancet, involved hospitalized patients, he said.