Hydroxychloroquine is a prescription drug used to tread lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and malaria. Like a lot of presciption drugs it can cause nasty side effect, including possibly fatal heart damage and permanent vision loss. It is known to interact badly with some other drugs, such as insulin and other diabetes drugs; drugs that treat common heart problems; and antiseizure and immunosuppresant drugs. So it’s not something you should take without close medical supervision, and you should take it only if you really need it.
Hydroxychloroquine also is thought to have anti-viral properties, and there have been studies for using it to treat viral diseases going back 40 years, according to the Lancet. However,
Hydroxychloroquine has shown activity in vitro against many viruses, including influenza and coronaviruses, but that has largely failed to translate into success in either animals or humans. In 2005, the drug showed in vitro activity against SARS-CoV, which is closely related to the current pandemic virus, but it failed to decrease viral load in mice, and clinical interest drifted away, says Christopher Tignanelli, a surgeon at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who is involved in clinical trials of COVID-19 treatments.
“There is not a huge amount of pre-clinical data for this drug,” says Tignanelli. “It’s mostly test-tube and anecdote.”
In other words, while it’s not impossible that hydroxychloroquine would be useful to treat our current coronavirus, that’s a long shot. Claims about patients it helped might just be a placebo effect. And given the drug’s risks, it’s not something to hand out to people indiscriminately in case it might help.
So when Donald Trump, who is hyping hydroxychloroquine, says “What do you have to lose? Take it,” the answer to his question is that you could lose your eyesight or your life. You could also lose your hair and develop ringing in the ears, nasty rashes, and suicidal thoughts.
But the degree to which elements in the Trump administration are pushing hydroxychloroquine as the magic bullet that will get us out of this pandemic mess suggests either desperation or avarice, or both. Suddenly there are shortages, which also suggests hoarding and a lot of the pills being diverted into a black market. It’s also the case that much of the hydroxychloroquine sold in the U.S. comes from India, which has stopped exports to the U.S.
A website called Sludge that may or may not be reliable claims that the Trump administration is being aggressivly lobbied to promote hydroxychloroquine by conservative groups with ties to the pharmaceutical industry. So there’s that.
CNN reported on a tense encounter among White House advisers over the weekend:
While discussing the latest on hydroxychloroquine this weekend, an exasperated Navarro lashed out at Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the advisers who has urged caution about the drug, a person familiar with the meeting told CNN.
Navarro had brought a stack of paperwork with him into the Situation Room on the drug, arguing it was proof that it could work to treat coronavirus, which Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, disagreed with because it was not data.
“What are you talking about?” Fauci asked — a question that set Navarro off. He became indignant, and at one point, accused Fauci of opposing Trump’s travel restrictions on China, which confused many in the room, given Fauci was one of the initial few to agree with Trump on the move, the source said.
Navarro, allegedly an economist, was mostly known for advising Trump on trade policy before the pandemic turned him into a medical expert. Be afraid. But Trump himself is the biggest salesman for the drug. Back to CNN:
Without citing evidence, Trump said at Sunday’s briefing that hydroxychloroquine is a “great” and “powerful” anti-malaria drug “and there are signs that it works on this, some very strong signs.”
For people without heart problems, Trump recommended combining hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, a common antibiotic. He said azithromycin “will kill certain things that you don’t want living within your body.”
Yet there is little reliable evidence that the drugs — either alone or in combination — are effective at treating the novel coronavirus.
Still, Trump said: “What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?”
For doctors, nurses and first responders, Trump suggested the drugs could be taken as a preventative. “They say taking it before the fact is good, but what do you have to lose?”
Experts do not suggest taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive for Covid-19 because there is no evidence yet to suggest it protects against contracting the virus.
“They say take it,” said Trump, without citing any experts or sources. “I’m not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early. But we have some very good signs.”
Trump also said the US Food and Drug Administration gave hydroxychloroquine “rapid approval,” but in fact, the FDA has not approved it for the treatment of Covid-19.
Talk like this is going to ramp up black market sales, big time, and probably kill a lot of people.
Peter Wade writes in Rolling Stone,
What exactly Trump’s motives are to get behind the unproven coronavirus remedies remains to be seen. But between this weekend’s reported argument coming out of the White House, sending out Navarro to undermine Fauci’s advice on the topic is disturbing. Adding to that, Trump himself did not allow Dr. Fauci to comment on hydroxychloroquine when reporters asked about the administration’s insistence to promote the drug during a recent briefing and new reporting by the Washington Post tells of Rudy Giuliani’s involvement in the chloroquines game while attempting to “cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser.” The whiff of a new grift is strong.
It might be that Trump just wants there to be an easy cure for the coronavirus in order to get the pandemic out of the way, and the stock market back up, before the November election. He seems susceptible to magical thinking, in particular the notion that if he says something often enough and forcefully enough reality will bend to his will. But it’s also the case that somebody must smell money to be made.
The president’s position is that he wants this to be true, and if he says it over and over and enough people believe him, it might as well be true. This strategy is not science, and goes against all the achievements of the human race that brought us out of the Dark Ages, but it’s what got him to the White House.
We elected a snake-oil salesman as President of the United States, and by God, he’s going to peddle some snake oil. How long, really, until we find out someone in Trump’s orbit stands to benefit financially from boosted sales of hydroxychloroquine? The most innocent explanation here is that Trump is merely a desperate and scared conman who is in way over his head. The least innocent is that he’s grifting on a global pandemic after completely botching the American response. …
… But now the whole right-wing grift-o-rama machine is oiled up and humming. The lackeys on State TV are peddling it in every segment they can, because he’s peddling it and their job is to peddle him.
So a lot of people are going to be taking lordy-knows-what sold to them as hydroxychloroquine, and maybe it’ll just be sugar pills that don’t do any harm, but it could give them a false sense of security leading to reckless behavior. Or, worse, it might really be hydroxychloroquine, and they could be hit with the dangerous side effects. If doctors want to try it as a last-ditch therapy on the sickest coronavirus patients that’s one thing, but you know it’s not going to stop with that.
In other news — Josh Marshall has been noting instances of our federal government seizing shipments of medical supplies heading to states or hospitals, and sometimes to other countries. See, for example, What’s Up with the Feds Seizing PPE Shipments to States and Hospitals?
Let’s talk about these seizures of PPE goods by federal authorities. There are a number of instances of this and as I noted in the post below a number of reasons why it might be happening. There are numerous cases where orders placed by states or hospitals have been canceled after they have been outbid by federal authorities or federal authorities have ordered vendors to sell to the federal government. According to Kaiser Health News, those compelled sales appear to be pursuant to an executive order President Trump signed on March 18th under authorities granted by the Defense Production Act.
But what I’m more interested in are reports of federal authorities confiscating physical shipments en route to states, local governments or regional hospital systems. The most publicized case of this came at some point in March when, according to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), a shipment of 3 million masks ordered through BJ’s Wholesale was seized by federal authorities in the Port of New York. Baker did not say which agency confiscated the goods or under what authority. That incident was what led to the widely reported and successful effort to fly goods in from China using the New England Patriots jet. …
… It’s not entirely clear from the report. But this does not sound like the federal government outbid the county or forced it to sell but rather that the physical shipment was interdicted and seized by federal authorities.
See also Barbados Claims US Seized Ventilators En Route to Country. Basically, it sounds like some part of the U.S. government is just flat-out seizing materials that had been lawfully purchased and were en route to the purchaser. WTF? Where are these supplies going? Who has them? Where are they going? Who is making money from this?
The answer might lie in what has been termed the world's oldest profession. A million dollars could possibly buy this level of political prostitution. Michael Cohen might have done a little pimping on the one according to a Law and Crime.
https://lawandcrime.com/covid-19-pandemic/major-producer-of-hydroxychloroquine-once-paid-michael-cohen-hefty-sum-for-access-to-trump/
Sodium hydroxide shows a remarkable in vitro activity against all viruses also. Maybe we should all just take a shot of sodium hydroxide to counter the spread of the corona virus? I mean, what have you got to lose?
Trump is just totally irresponsible with his pushing of medical advice or suggestions in an area where he has no expertise or knowledge. Trump is advocating for the modern day equivalent of leaching.
I hate to put out an I told you so, but I was 100% right when I said that Trump is a big bag of shit. It's like the proof is in the pudding.
Trump may be on the ropes financially – nobody who knows can tell. A lot of his properties are shuttered (until Trump declares golf is an essential business.) Trump can't admit his wealth isn't endless and that limits his range of actions.
However, I agree with Digby that much of Trump's pimping (first a virus, now an untested combination of drugs) is part of the story line Trump is writing. Guess who the hero is. He's sure he can produce a convincing show that proves Trump is a medical genius who singlehandedly saved the world.
Trump's Navy sockpuppet who fired the CO of the Teddy Roosevelt completely reversed himself and apologized for insulting remarks he made to the entire crew of the TR. This clown is the Trump appointee, an "acting" whatever. It looks like Trump ordered the CO removed, saw the backlash and then the ashwipe went public with trashing a military man the public is siding with. Trump ordered an apology (my guess) – nobody else has authority over the moron.
The Captain has the virus – it's not smart to beat up on him with the spotlight shining. He went public over the USN dragging their feet on responding to the virus. That put the media on the story and the USN is doing what the CO demanded – after they fired him for demanding it. It's worth watching (to me) – I'm an old carrier sailor.
My comment here is much like everone else''s on a prior post.
I'm sure that The tRUMP Crime Family has to have some profitable stake or other in moving this drug, otherwise they'd never mention it.
Doing anything charitable or even helpful – or anything at all – without some form of profit or another is anathema to anyone with the tRUMP name. It's as likely as turtles flying faster than the speed of sound, or Democrats becoming great at messaging.
And if people actually get extremely ill or even die by taking this stuff, it's no skin off tRUMP's fat orange ass! "Next quick fix!"
As for the tRUMP Crime Family's piracy, could that possibly be involved with Jared's building "our" "not for the state's" stockpile? You know, to be used for political or financial profit?!?
My bet's, "HELL YES!!!!!"
'Night, all… ?
https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz/status/1235309294146539520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tmz.com%2F2020%2F03%2F04%2Fmatt-gaetz-congress-funding-coronavirus%2F
Ah, the good old days. March 4th. When the coronavirus was just a democratic hoax and Matt Gaetz was the Congressional jester.. Ha ha ha, so much fun in those days!
From a NYT article:
As the old adage goes: Follow the money.
We have a civil society to lose. More importantly we have a horribly cruel and destructive political party to lose.
There is a pill for every ill, or so it is said. That is a lie. A more truthful statement is that there is a pill or many pills sold for every ill. Ah the days of Laetrile, the noble peach pit, which achieved vitamin status as the 17th B vitamin. Oh did I mention it was also a cure for all cancers, but back then cancer was more a singular disease. Never approved in the United States it was a quite popular medical pilgrimage for many with money in these parts. Mexico had the treatment, and we had the gullible buyers.
For Trump and company, perception is reality. If they can corner the market on the pill that is perceived to cure the Trump virus, that is victory. Damn the science, look at all the money the United States missed out on by not selling Laetrile.
Now India is going into competition and flooding the market with cheaper Trump potion aka hydroxychloroquine , Plaquenil, or Quineprox. This is causing Trump Inc. fits as this is unwanted competition.
Isn't it good to have a president looking after "our interests" in these troubling times.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/india-releases-hydroxychloroquine-stocks-amid-pressure-from-trump
I hope Guilani Partners gets a piece of the action. Him and Bernie Kerik did so well cornering the stun gun market after 9/11 that I'd hope they are quick enough to get a sizable chunk of the cloroquine grab. It's only right that Rudy gets a little compensation for all the hard work he did in exposing Hunter Biden's grift.
When America was disease free they were selling Emu as a get rich quick scheme. Was Rudy in on that scam too?
Medicines (drugs) (chemicals) are a very interesting study. There are toxic substances which used in very small doses can be helpful. Peach and apricot pits contain cyanide so can be deadly. Chinese medicine use them in their formulas. However, they are used in small doses and in cooperation with other herbs. This is one reason the Chinese use herbs in formulas. I realize some people see Chinese medicine as barbaric. Having studied it, I know this is not true. When the FDA does drug trials, they give one group the real drug and another group a placebo. Nobody knows who is getting the real one not even the nurses administering it until the trial is over.
When Chinese medicine was brought to this country (after Nixon's visit to China) it was labeled as a placebo by the dominant medical profession. As a result, Harvard University began a study on placebos and hired an acupuncturist to assist in the trials. His name is Ted Kaptchuk and you can do your own research on him. He is the author of a book titled: The Web That Has No Weaver. What they found is that placebos do have a positive effect even if the patient knows (s)he is getting a placebo.
I pass this info on because it shows the power of the mind. It can have a positive or negative effect on the body. It's not a new concept, many great minds have tried to impress us with this knowledge. My intent is to remind everyone reading this how powerful your mind is. So, as the song goes: Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. There is more to the song, I'm sure you know it. The concept is also expressed in the children's book: The Little Engine That Could.
Back to today, I agree Trump is scared and desperate. He is so delusional and he believes his own lies so if he does not get re-elected and "save the world" in his mind he has not "won". He has told us winning is everything to him but how does he fight something so tiny as a virus? Calling it the Chinese virus didn't go over so well. He can't hold his rallies because of social distancing so how does he rile up the believers? He has a problem and he can't ask for help because he is the very stable genius who alone can fix things. He is setting up Pence to be blamed for everything that goes wrong and I honestly feel he would do the same to his own family if need be. After all, he has sold his soul to the devil.
As for shipments being seized, that *might* be part of the DPA, and might demonstrate his complete incompetence.
The DPA does allow the President to instruct companies in what to make and how to ship orders; it sounds (from some bits I've heard) that 3M may have gotten orders to ship products ordered by other people to the federal government's target. (Which, as you've noted before, might be to middle-men trying to profit(eer) off the crisis.)
Re: anti-malarial drugs, geez, the twisted feelings that creates. Would it be amazing if hydroxychlorquine worked? Yes, it would save thousands, maybe millions, of lives.
And yet, that ridiculous long-shot miracle occurring would convince the Republicans that they were right, sure, a Democrat [sic] President might have capped off fatalities to a couple thousand, but we don't have to mention that, we can just praise the ever living (expletive deleted) out of Trump, as if he deserved credit for an incredibly gullible, uninformed, bit of guess work.
And it reminds me of the old joke – a person staying in a house during a flood, and a neighbor drives buy in a pickup truck, asking if they need to get to high ground, "no, the lord will provide." When the flood waters start to rise, a neighbor comes by in a rowboat, and urges evacuation, and "no, no need, the lord will provide." When the waters get so high, he's forced to his roof, a helicopter drops a ladder, and, eventually, a rescuer climbs down and says "are you crazy? Let us take you to safety!" "no, no, no, I have faith, the lord will provide."
And, of course, the punchline, "lord, I trusted in you, and I'm dead! Why didn't you help?" "DUDE! I sent a pickup truck, a rowboat, and a frickin' helicopter for you!"
Hydroxychlorquine working would be like the floodwaters receding after the helicopter left. It's almost certainly a crazy, pure-chance, miraculous-seeming coincidence – but it's the kind of coincidence that convinces the dull that they were right to have faith all along.
I mean, it would give the GOP a chance to decide Trump is dangerously underpre-p… under prpa… ahem. It would give the GOP a chance to decide that Trump is dangerously underprePHWAH-hah-hah-hah-hah! Okay, I didn't get through *that* with a straight face.
I mean, seriously, how on earth can any person with any part of their heart, and soul, still present, decide to support the man who was warned, over and over, and refused to obey the warnings? The idiot who thought "foreigners who've been to China can't enter the US, but we don't need to, you know, screen, or test, Americans"? How many more American lives can be sacrificed to judges who've promised to back the party line, and tax cuts?
(I'm sorry – judges haven't *promised* to back the party line (at least, not out loud!). They've just earned the approval of The Federalist Society, which was formed when judges *didn't* back the party line. So, while on its face, you might think The Federalist Society would be biased, and intending to pre-judge cases in accordance with political desires, HOW DARE YOU IMPUGN THE HONESTY AND INTEGRITY OF THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY!!! Do you know how many highly respected (by the TFS, at least!) federal judges received TFS endorsements?)
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