What killed 100k Americans wasn't just the #COVID!9 - STOP THE MADNESS
Mr. President and The GOP, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
VIRUS DRUG
TRUMP, on why he considers hydroxychloroquine safe for the treatment of COVID-19: “Frankly, I’ve heard tremendous reports. Many people think it saved their lives.” — interview with Attkisson.
TRUMP: “I’ve received a lot of positive letters and it seems to have an impact. And maybe it does; maybe it doesn’t. But if it doesn’t, you’re not going to get sick or die. This is a pill that’s been used for a long time — for 30, 40 years on malaria and on lupus too, and even on arthritis.” — remarks on May 18.
TRUMP: “It doesn’t hurt people.” — remarks Tuesday after a GOP policy lunch.
THE FACTS: He’s wrong to assert there is no risk of harm if people take the malaria drug to try to prevent a coronavirus infection. Trump’s own health agencies have cautioned that taking hydroxychloroquine to stave off the virus could be dangerous due to side effects. If the president is to be believed, he’s taking the drug himself.
Trump repeatedly has pushed hydroxychloroquine, with or without the antibiotic azithromycin. No large, rigorous studies have found them safe or effective for COVID-19, and they can cause heart rhythm problems and other serious side effects. The Food and Drug Administration has warned against the drug combination and said hydroxychloroquine should only be used for the coronavirus in hospitals and research settings.
Two large observational studies, each involving about 1,400 patients in New York, recently found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine. Two new ones in the journal BMJ, one by French researchers and the other from China, reached the same conclusion.
On Friday, a study published by the journal Lancet suggested that hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, with or without an antibiotic, did not help hospitalized patients and was tied to a greater risk of death or heart rhythm problems. Although it was observational rather than a rigorous test, it’s by far the largest so far to examine these drugs in real-world settings — nearly 100,000 patients in 671 hospitals on six continents. Researchers estimated that the death rate attributable to the use of the drugs, with or without an antibiotic such as azithromycin, is roughly 13% versus 9% for patients not taking them.
The drug has been available for decades to treat the mosquito-borne illness malaria; it is also prescribed for some lupus and arthritis patients.
Technically, doctors can already prescribe the drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing. But that is not the same as the FDA approving the drug specifically for the pandemic, which would mean it had met the agency’s standards for safety and effectiveness.
FDA regulators issued a warning alert last month in part based on increased reports of dangerous side effects called into U.S. poison control centers.
TRUMP: “The only negative I’ve heard was the study where they gave it — was it the VA? With, you know, people that aren’t big Trump fans gave it ...they had a report come out.” — remarks on May 18.
TRUMP: “It was given by, obviously, not friends of the administration.” — remarks Tuesday at Cabinet meeting.
TRUMP: “And if you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape. They were very old, almost dead. It was a ‘Trump enemy statement.’” — remarks Tuesday after GOP policy lunch.
THE FACTS: There’s no evidence of a political plot at the Department of Veterans Affairs or elsewhere to produce a study pointing to poor outcomes for veterans who took hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 in a bid to make Trump look bad. That study was led by independent researchers — at the University of Virginia and the University of South Carolina — and grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Virginia school paid for the work.
The study released last month found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine.
The analysis, conducted by the researchers with VA approval, was not a rigorous experiment, nor was it peer-reviewed. Still, with 368 patients, it was the largest look at hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 at the time. Researchers stressed a “great and immediate need” to conduct the analysis due to limited scientific evidence on the drug’s safety and “increasingly widespread use” both as a way to prevent COVID-19 and to treat it.
Researchers analyzed medical records of male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at VA medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11. About 28% of veterans who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone.
“These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs,” the researchers wrote.
It’s also a point that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has repeatedly made, urging caution on the drug.
“Although there is anecdotal evidence that hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin may benefit people with COVID-19, we need solid data,” Fauci said.
No drug has been approved for treating the disease, although several have “emergency use” authorization. Most people who get COVID-19 recover.
TRUMP, on the study of VA hospital data: “If you look at that phony report that was put in, that report on the hydroxyl -- was given to people that were in extraordinarily bad condition -- extraordinarily bad, people that were dying.” — remarks on May 18.
TRUMP: “There was a false study done where they gave it to very sick people — extremely sick people, people that were ready to die. ... And the study came out. The people were ready to die. Everybody was old, had bad problems with hearts, diabetes, and everything else you can imagine.” — remarks Tuesday at Cabinet meeting.
VA SECRETARY ROBERT WILKIE: “They did not even look at what the president just mentioned — the various comorbidities that the patients who were referenced in that study had.” — Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
WILKIE: “The analysis did not adjust for patients’ clinical status.” — letter on April 29 to veterans’ groups.
THE FACTS: Trump and his VA secretary are incorrect. Researchers did use standard statistical methods to adjust for differences in the groups being compared, including clinical status and the presence of other chronic health conditions. They did not cherry-pick only the oldest or sickest ones who took the drug.
Even though the VA hospital patients given the drug tended to be sicker than those in the comparison group, researchers still saw no benefit from the drug after taking that into account.
The study included all VA patients treated with the drug. One of the measurements was whether it helped prevent the need for breathing machines. It didn’t.
Researchers did not trackside effects but noted there were hints hydroxychloroquine might have damaged other organs. The drug has long been known to have potentially serious side effects such as altering the heartbeat in a way that could lead to sudden death.
The study noted that the median age of the test group was over 65, meaning half the patients were below that and half above it.
The NIH and others have more rigorous tests underway.
US deaths from coronavirus surpass 100,000 milestone US deaths from coronavirus surpass 100,000 milestone
