I missed this: why Team Trump keeps pushing hydroxychloroquine

Another great deal he made.

The federal government is stuck with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine now that the US Food and Drug Administration has revoked permission for the drug to be distributed to treat coronavirus patients.

The government started stockpiling donated hydroxychloroquine in late March, after President Trump touted it as "very encouraging" and "very powerful" and a "game-changer."

  CNN

"Donated" my ass. I'll believe that when I see the accounting.

Before the FDA revoked its authorization, the stockpile had already distributed 31 million doses. Novartis and Mylan donated doses of the drug to the stockpile.

For a big tax break, at the very least.

he FDA revoked its emergency use authorization to use the drug to treat Covid-19, saying there was "no reason to believe" the drug was effective against the virus, and that it increased the risk of side effects, including heart problems.

That leaves the Strategic National Stockpile with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine, plus another 2 million doses of chloroquine, a related drug donated by Bayer, according to Carol Danko, a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services.

[...]

"Nationally, we put a great emphasis on one drug, hydroxychloroquine," said David Holtgrave, the dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany, who co-authored a study of the drug as a treatment for coronavirus. "I worry that history will judge this as having over-invested in one treatment pathway as opposed to looking more broadly at a larger number of treatment candidates."

You think?

Hydroxychloroquine has been used for many years to treat diseases such as malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus. After President Trump started touting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19, patients with those illnesses reported having trouble finding the drug.

I know where they can get 63 million doses. Perhaps donated.

In March, Trump tweeted that a French study showed hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin "have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine." He continued to be a cheerleader for the drug for several months, and even said he took it himself after being exposed to staffers with the virus.

That French study had so many problems that the society that published it has backed away from it.

First, the study didn't conclude that the drug worked for Covid patients -- just that it decreased the amount of the virus found in the nose and throat.

Also, it was a very small study -- just 20 patients -- and it ignored patients who took hydroxychloroquine and died or ended up in the intensive care unit.

Well, JFC. Who performed that study? Donald LeTrompe?

Since then, two major studies have found that the drug is ineffective against coronavirus.

But Art of the Deal stockpiled 63 million doses.

UPDATE:

Still, Navarro, the White House trade adviser, praised the administration’s announcement on Tuesday that it would lend $765 million to the Eastman Kodak Company under the Defense Production Act to facilitate increased domestic manufacturing of drugs — including hydroxychloroquine, according to The Wall Street Journal.

  Politico

What a fucking waste.