With the way cable news people talk about hydroxychloroquine, you’d think it was an exotic herb mixed into a potion recipe passed down only in spoken word by aboriginal Australians, rather than what it actually is — a government-regulated drug that’s been prescribed by medical doctors for decades to treat multiple conditions.
President Trump said this week that his doctor cleared him to start taking the drug as a potential prophylactic against the coronavirus. He also pushed it as a possible “line of defense” that might be used more widely if it proves effective.
Almost nothing in the past three months has enraged the press like Trump’s desperate cheerleading for a treatment for COVID-19, for which there so far is none, so naturally, they got angry all over again.
On Fox News, Neil Cavuto said, “If you are in a risky population here and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus or in a worst-case scenario, you are dealing with the virus, and you are in a vulnerable population, it will kill you.” For good measure, he added, “I cannot stress enough, this will kill you.”
Joe Scarborough on MSNBC asserted — without evidence! — that Trump was lying about even taking the drug, saying, “He’s not taking something that his own administration has said will kill you, that his own FDA said will kill you, that the VA said will kill you.”
This is all a lie.
I have no idea whether Trump is taking the drug, but if he is, it’s because it was prescribed by a doctor that he sees daily and is available to him at any given moment.
Those are, right now, the exact conditions advised by government health officials for any person determined to benefit potentially from hydroxychloroquine.
Here’s the little secret that these raging mad people don’t seem to want to let you in on: Obtaining hydroxychloroquine requires a doctor’s prescription.
It would be like if Trump said he enjoys flying on Air Force One, and the TV people started screaming at you through the screen, “I’m warning you! Don’t try boarding Air Force One! You will be shot by Secret Service!”
Yeah, wouldn’t I need some kind of special clearance to get on the president’s airplane anyway?
“Don’t do it! You will die!”
I mean, but if I was told it was OK by the people in charge, it would probably be safe.
“You will die!”
The jury is still out on whether hydroxychloroquine or that drug with some combination of another drug offers any certain benefit to COVID-19 patients who take it under care by their doctor. But it’s far from drinking Drano.
The National Institutes of Health published one study this month that said COVID-19 positive patients in France were given hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in tandem. It concluded that the treatment was “significantly associated with viral load reduction/disappearance in COVID-19 patients.” In other words, patients receiving the treatment recovered quicker.
Other studies have shown no association between the drug and recovery whatsoever, nor have they found that it works as a preventative.
One Veterans Affairs study often cited in news reports said that the treatment was abruptly ended after too many patients died, though it’s unclear if they died because of the drug or if they died because they were elderly and severely ill beyond recovery, to begin with.
So, it’s possible that a hydroxychloroquine treatment works for younger people but not the elderly. Or, perhaps it works for infected people who have only exhibited mild symptoms.
We don’t have any definite answers yet, including whether patients who receive the drug automatically die.
The FDA has said that it has received reports that use of the drug coincided with heart problems in some patients, but nobody knows yet whether that was because of the drug. Though, it’s worth noting that plenty of drugs have dangerous side effects. Every pharmaceutical ad lists them, and yet, those products are still pushed in cable news commercial breaks all day.
Everyone should do what liberals keep insisting we do, which is listen to the health experts. And in some cases, yes, that means taking the drug.
