| Summary: | Shuncong Wang,1,* Stefaan Mulier,1,2,* Charles Jonscher,3 Sheng Ye,4 Lei Chen,1 Yuanbo Feng,1 Yue Li,5 Yicheng Ni1 1Campus Gasthuisberg, Group of Biomedical Sciences, KU, Leuven, Belgium; 2Department of Surgery, Delta Hospital, Brussels, Belgium; 3Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 4Primary Care NJ, Englewood, NJ, USA; 5Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai 201318, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yicheng NiDepartment of Radiology, University Hospital, Herestraat 49, Leuven B3000, BelgiumTel +32-16-32 27 52Fax + 32-16-34 37 65Email yicheng.ni@kuleuven.beAbstract: There are widespread anecdotal reports of seemingly successful treatment among the early (three to seven days from symptoms) stage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with the drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), and randomized placebo-controlled trials of HCQ in outpatient settings are underway. In this note, we (1) report observational evidence and present scientific reasoning as to why early treatment with HCQ may succeed while treatment later in the disease progression is likely to fail and (2) hypothesize a public health regime under which HCQ may be used to mitigate the impact of the current pandemic.Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, early treatment, hydroxychloroquine, lockdown
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