Statin withdrawal and treating COVID‐19 patients

Abstract

Abstract Most but not all observational studies of statin treatment of COVID‐19 patients suggest that treatment improves outcomes. However, almost all of these studies fail to consider that withdrawing statins after hospital admission may have detrimental effects, a finding which cardiovascular investigators have known for 15–20 years. Continuing or starting statin treatment after hospital admission consistently improves cardiovascular outcomes. Similarly, inpatient statin treatment of COVID‐19 improves survival. For this reason, observational studies of the effectiveness of outpatient‐documented statin treatment of COVID‐19 patients must consider the negative consequences of statin withdrawal after hospital admission.

Keywords

• COVID‐19
• mortality
• statin treatment
• statin withdrawal