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.

Pressured?

Or legit?

Medical journal The Lancet publicly acknowledged Tuesday that a massive study on hydroxychloroquine that raised serious health concerns about the anti-malaria drug was potentially flawed.

The Lancet issued an "expression of concern" on a study it published last month of nearly 100,000 patients that tied hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to a higher risk of death in hospitalized patients with the coronavirus.

The journal said that "serious scientific questions have been brought to our attention" about the study and that the authors have commissioned an independent review of the data.

[...]

Following the publication of the study, numerous scientists around the world raised concerns with what they said was inconsistent data in the report.

The study's authors, led by Mandeep Mehra of Harvard Medical School, have repeatedly declined to release their underlying data, despite signing a pledge to share information on the coronavirus.

Last week, the study’s research team corrected some of its data but said its conclusions remained the same.

  The Hill

UPDATE:

The World Health Organization (WHO) will resume a clinical trial to study the effects of the anti-malaria drug touted by President Trump as a treatment for COVID-19 after pausing it due to safety concerns, the organization said Wednesday.

Enrollment in the hydroxychloroquine arm of the Solidarity Trial was temporarily paused last week after an article in The Lancet medical journal warned about the safety of the drug.

[...]

In the U.S., a 2,000-person trial launched by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is also underway.

  The Hill

Hydroxychloroquine study

A major study of the way hydroxychloroquine and its older version, chloroquine, have been used on six continents – without clinical trials – reveals a sobering picture. Scientists said the results meant the drug should no longer be given to Covid-19 patients except in proper research settings.

While the paper, published online in the Lancet medical journal, is not a trial designed to assess the drug, it shows that the rush to use it around the world may be ill-advised. Significant numbers of doctors have been prescribing it without evidence. It is known that the drug can cause heart irregularities, but many have claimed it is safe because of its long use treating malaria.

  Guardian

If by many you mean the Trump cabal.

There was a rush to use the drug in Covid-19 cases after the French doctor Didier Raoult said he was curing his patients at La Timone hospital, in Marseille. The US president then claimed hydroxychloroquine – less toxic than the original chloroquine – was a cure, and later said he was taking it himself against coronavirus.

The drugs are fairly safe for patients being treated for malaria, but Covid-19 is a very different disease. The authors of the paper pulled together results for more than 96,000 patients in 671 hospitals, taking one of the drugs, with or without an antibiotic such as azithromycin, between 20 December and 14 April.

The death rate among all groups taking the drugs was higher than among people who were not given them. One in six of those taking one of the drugs died, while one in five died if they were taking chloroquine with an antibiotic, and one in four if they were on hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic. The death rate among patients not taking the drugs was one in 11.

The statistics are not exactly comparable because, as this was not a trial, there were differences in the age, gender, general health and stage of illness of the patients.

[...]

The team also found that serious cardiac arrhythmias, which cause the lower chamber of the heart to beat rapidly and irregularly, were more common in all the groups receiving one of the four treatment regimens. The biggest increase was in the group treated with hydroxychloroquine in combination with an antibiotic, where 8% of patients developed a heart arrhythmia compared with 0.3% of patients not given the drugs.

[...]

“Whilst controlled trials will be required for confident affirmation, the indications are that these drugs certainly ought not to be used outside of a trial setting where patients can be monitored for complications. One might also question whether the resources necessary for large studies might be better diverted to other causes, at the same time allowing the drugs themselves to be used for their original purpose.

“Furthermore, it is clear that high-profile endorsements of taking these drugs without clinical oversight are both misguided and irresponsible.”

That's our president: misguided and irresponsible. Not to mention ignorant and cruel.

It is definitely a waste of time and resources, not to mention irresponsible, to conduct trials (assuming you can find enough voluntary human guinea pigs), for covid-19 purposes when the study already shows the more likely negative - and fatal - results.

“It might even be said that to go on giving them, other than in a trial, is unethical, given this evidence that is not yet contradicted by other available evidence.”

Yeah. Unethical.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

He says he's taking hydroxychloroquine

And he probably has stock in it.

That's not all Cavuto said.  Listen to the clip.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Indeed.

And I'm wondering how a civilian would get access to/a prescription for HQ outisde of a clinical trial or for treating malaria, arthritis or lupis.

UPDATE:

"Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. I'm not a doctor."

Jesus.

Yeah, he's got stock.

UPDATE:

Aaaand they're off!

UPDATE:

LOL.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

“Not a chance,” said [former Trump Organization executive vice president Barbara] Res. [...] “I don’t think he would subject himself to any potential harm. He wants everyone to think he’s taking it and to think everything he has said all along about it has been right. That’s what he wants. That’s why he’s saying he’s taking it.”

[...]

“He’s going to prove that he was right,” said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump political adviser, “when everybody else said he was wrong.”

[...]

“He’s got to tell those people, ‘Of course I’m taking hydroxy,’” former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci explained. “‘They’re telling you it doesn’t work, but I’m telling you it does. I am your chief of the red tribe of Trump.’”

  Politico

The hits just keep on coming

The examination of Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko’s records began when an associate, conservative commentator Jerome Corsi, accidentally sent an email intended for Zelenko to another “Z” name in his address book — federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who as a member of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team had spent months scrutinizing Corsi’s activities during the 2016 presidential election.

[...]

Corsi is best known for his promotion of the false theory that former president Barack Obama was not born in the United States, a topic over which he bonded with Trump before the celebrity mogul ran for president.

[...]

In his YouTube video, Corsi displayed the email he inadvertently sent to Zelinsky. In it, he wrote that Zelenko had “an FDA approved randomized test of HCQ underway” — a reference to hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial.

Despite a lack of scientific evidence, President Trump has enthusiastically promoted the drug as a potential treatment for patients infected with covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration, citing reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” associated with hydroxychloroquine, warned doctors against its use outside of a hospital or clinical trial.

[...]

Corsi said that Zelinsky responded to the unexpected email by reaching out to Corsi’s lawyer and requesting all of Corsi’s communications with Zelenko.

  WaPo

Probably should have deleted Zelinsky's contact info as soon as he got past the Mueller investigation.

Corsi said he and Zelenko are collaborating on a website designed to connect people with doctors. They have acted lawfully, Corsi added, but he plans to cooperate with the request and has handed over his communications.

Zelinsky is tasked now with investigating coronavirus-related crimes in the Maryland U.S. attorney’s office, as part of a directive from U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr to prioritize such cases. The department already has charged a medley of fraudsters for peddling fake cures, selling personal protective equipment they didn’t actually have or running more complicated Medicare reimbursement schemes, and officials say tips are coming in droves.

I bet that's right. Anybody send in a tip on the president's constant ill-advised suggestions and snake oil?

After learning of the federal prosecutor’s interest, Corsi said he asked Zelenko about whether he had an FDA approved study — as Corsi said Zelenko had told another physician at a training event. Zelenko, Corsi said, then suggested his study was approved instead by an internal hospital panel.

“I pointed out to Zelenko, ‘But it’s not registered as an FDA test, and you can’t say it is,’ ” Corsi said Thursday on YouTube, adding that he did not feel Zelenko was trying to defraud anyone, but rather did not understand what it meant to have an FDA-approved test.

Everything that comes within 10 feet of Donald Trump can be counted on to contain a large percentage of sleaze.

Zelenko consults frequently with some of Trump’s closest allies. Trump aides say he has been in contact with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other officials. In a recent interview, Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said he and Zelenko speak frequently — often more than once a day.

“He’s a very smart doctor,” Giuliani said.

Praise from Giuliani. Should raise red flags.

Corsi said he was referred to Zelenko by another doctor also interested in covid-19 and hosted Zelenko for the first time on his podcast earlier this month.

Corsi’s website, speakwithanmd.com, offers people the opportunity to schedule a virtual appointment with a doctor, by clicking on a button and inputting their name and address. It advertises a “low consult fee” of $59.95, as well as “Prescriptions Delivered Right to Your Door, Same Day!” through a partner.

[...]

It is unclear how seriously prosecutors are scrutinizing the matter. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. But even passing interest from federal authorities into efforts to promote the anti-malarial is likely to chafe the president and his allies, particularly given the involvement of a former member of Mueller’s team.

Leave the pig sty behind, maybe you'll have fewer problems.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Haven't heard anything from Trump about hydroxychloroquine lately

I wonder why.

A panel of experts convened by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recommends against doctors using a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for the treatment of COVID-19 patients because of potential toxicities.

"The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was associated with QTc prolongation in patients with COVID-19," the panel said.

QTc prolongation increases the risk of sudden cardiac death.

[...]

As for using the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine alone, the panel said there was "insufficient clinical data to recommend either for or against." It reached the same conclusion about the drug remdesivir.

  NPR

Which Trump also touted at one time.

[T]he panel recommended against using Lopinavir/ritonavir or other HIV protease inhibitors because of negative clinical trial data. It also recommended against using interferon because it seemed to make patients with SARS and MERS worse. Those diseases are caused by a coronavirus related to the one causing COVID-19.

[...]

The expert panel, convened by the NIH Institute that Dr. Anthony Fauci directs, produced a set of guidelines for doctors to use in treating COVID-19 patients. The panelists come from a variety of health care disciplines. For the most part, the guidelines are agnostic about the use of experimental medications, pointing out that strong scientific evidence is lacking to make a firm conclusion one way or the other.

[...]

The panel also concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend any kind of treatment either to prevent infection with the coronavirus or to prevent the progression of symptoms in those who are already infectious. That recommendation could change based on clinical trials presently underway.

[...]

The plan is to update the guidelines frequently as new results become available. Swindells said there could be an update about the recommendations regarding remdesivir in the coming week or so.

Stay tuned.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Trump pills

In mid-March, a cryptocurrency investor, a law school graduate and a self-described philosopher found each other on Twitter. They discussed their hopes that a little-known drug called hydroxychloroquine could help contain the accelerating coronavirus outbreak.

Two days later, two of them published a paper about the drug’s potential on Google Docs, falsely claiming the imprimatur of two major universities and the National Academy of Sciences.

[...]

All three institutions, as well as Thomas Broker, a third researcher listed as a coauthor, subsequently said they were not involved in the paper and had no knowledge of its existence before it was published.

[...]

Still, the early association of these institutions gave the paper the prestige it needed to go mainstream, landing [the authors] on entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Twitter feed, then on Fox News.

[...]

Within days, the paper scored one of its authors a spot on on both Laura Ingraham’s and Tucker Carlson’s Fox News shows. The day after Carlson’s show, Trump made his first mention of hydroxychloroquine from the White House podium.

[...]

At the White House the next day, Trump announced the FDA had approved the “promising” drug for immediate use — a pronouncement that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, had to walk back, clarifying that it had been approved only for clinical trials.

[...]

Three weeks later, the president of the United States said he himself may take the drug and encouraged others to do the same.

“What do you have to lose?” Trump asked on Saturday. “I’ll say it again: What do you have to lose? Take it.”

[...]

Now, Trump is vowing to distribute millions of doses of the drug to people through the country’s strategic national stockpile, even though there’s no conclusive research that the drug works for coronavirus.

[...]

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug for that purpose, and initial small studies from China and France had defects that make it impossible to draw firm conclusions.

[...]

A small early study out of France suggested benefits, but experts have since questioned that research, saying the lead researcher has a dubious history with manipulating data and noting that the researcher chose who would get the drug, skewing the results.

[...]

More recently, a Chinese study suggested no effect from the pills.

[...]

Meanwhile, Trump’s promotional monologues have led to shortages for people who rely on hydroxychloroquine for other conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

[...]

An upstate New York doctor in a Hasidic Jewish community claimed he cured hundreds of coronavirus patients with the drug. “Hawaii Five-0” and “Lost” star Daniel Dae Kim claimed hydroxychloroquine was his “secret weapon” in his fight against the coronavirus.

[...]

The sudden, intense interest in the drug has had downsides. A man died after ingesting a drug normally given to fish in the belief that one of its ingredients, chloroquine phosphate, was the drug that Trump had touted. It’s also led to a shortage of the drug for lupus and arthritis patients who take the medicine regularly.

[...]

But that hasn’t stopped a segment of Trump’s supporters from loudly trumpeting the drug’s potential. Some have started calling the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, another commonly available drug, “Trump Pills.” Twitter has deleted tweets from Trump allies like Giuliani, Ingraham and conservative campus organizer Charlie Kirk for touting the drug as a “promising cure,” citing the lack of scientific evidence backing it.

[...]

Through official channels, the FDA and New York state have dramatically ramped up trials for hydroxychloroquine, ordering millions of doses of the drug and conducting wide-scale clinical trials. The FDA also authorized emergency use of the drug for coronavirus patients — a move that makes it easier to use the drug but is not an endorsement of the drug’s effectiveness in fighting the illness.

  Politico

We will never hear the end of it if they find some combination using chloroquine that works to cure or even mitigate the effects of the virus.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The man in the alley

UPDATE:

Gee, that sounds like a really in-depth study.