On Monday afternoon, President Trump told the press that he’s taking a drug called hydroxychloroquine as a preventative to ward off the coronavirus — a practice for which there is no evidence and that could, in theory, have negative side effects as serious as hallucinations and heart failure.
“I take it,” Trump said. “So far, I seem to be okay.”
Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial drug that a non-randomized study from a French lab, publicized in March, initially suggested could be used as a treatment in fighting the coronavirus. In March, Trump frequently touted the drug, calling it “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.” But further studies have concluded that it is not effective in many cases and should not be routinely used to treat patients.As previously noted at this blog, at Vox, and elsewhere, the hydroxychloroquine doesn't help against COVID and actually increased the death rate, most likely from the negative effects mentioned earlier. In short, it's NOT a drug you should be taking unless you're dealing with an actual condition - malaria, I think lupus - it's meant for. Back to Beauchamp:
Trump seems to be taking it not as a treatment for COVID-19 — he’s apparently tested negative — but as a preventative to protect himself from contracting it. There’s no medical evidence supporting the idea that this would work, and the risk of potential psychiatric and cardiac side effects, which are serious, would likely strongly outweigh any (hypothetical) benefits...
One of two things:
1) Either trump really is taking a drug that has no proven effect in combating COVID-19, which has documented side effects that could leave him (more) brain-damaged and dying from heart attack. He's doing this despite the likely medical advice he's supposed to be getting from the experts supposed to inform him on how to combat the pandemic, which shows AGAIN the poor judgment and obsessive self-destructive behavior trump's been showing for decades.
2) trump is lying. Either to allay any fear he himself is sick, or lying to keep his fanbase ill-informed, dependent on him instead of the experts, and likely getting those ill-informed dupes to buy more of the drug - is there any amazement that a solid number of his critics think he's getting kickbacks on drug sales? - to use without care or concern.
Nearly everybody I know on Twitter pretty much talked me into believing the latter instead of the former. Option 1) is so reckless and lethal that even a moran like trump wouldn't seriously volunteer himself to do. Option 2) fits his modus operandi of bullshitting the public, posing himself as a decisive, gung-ho leader, and then backing off with another round of lies to pretend he never said the first set of lies anyway.
The Twitter hashtag #HESLYING was a popular trend for the whole afternoon.
But this is what trump is stuck with. he refuses to make the hard choices - keep up the social distancing, take the economic hits of closing half our public spaces, spend money on keeping people alive and out of debt - that our nation needs right now to survive not just the next few months but what's looking like the rest of the year (and well into 2021).
trump wants that easy rescue. he wants a magic elixir at the doorstep to cure all ails and solve all woes.
trump is still digging hard for a miracle cure.
Problem is, he's pushing a deadly drug like some street-corner hoodlum that'll kill us faster than the virus.
Problem is, trump is digging our graves instead.
1 comment:
So I wonder whether hydroxychloroquine interacts with adderall to make one even stupider than otherwise?
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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