Doctors Are Hoarding Unproven Coronavirus Medicine By Writing Prescriptions For Themselves and Their Families (propublica.org) 236
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ProPublica: A nationwide shortage of two drugs touted as possible treatments for the coronavirus is being driven in part by doctors inappropriately prescribing the medicines for family, friends and themselves, according to pharmacists and state regulators. Demand for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine surged over the past several days as President Donald Trump promoted them as possible treatments for the coronavirus and online forums buzzed with excitement over a small study suggesting the combination of hydroxychloroquine and a commonly used antibiotic could be effective in treating COVID-19.
"It's disgraceful, is what it is," said Garth Reynolds, executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, which started getting calls and emails Saturday from members saying they were receiving questionable prescriptions. "And completely selfish." Reynolds said the Illinois Pharmacists Association has started reaching out to pharmacists and medical groups throughout the state to urge doctors, nurses and physician assistants not to write prescriptions for themselves and those close to them. "We even had a couple of examples of prescribers trying to say that the individual they were calling in for had rheumatoid arthritis," he said, explaining that pharmacists suspected that wasn't true. "I mean, that's fraud." In one case, Reynolds said, the prescriber initially tried to get the pills without an explanation and only offered up that the individual had rheumatoid arthritis after the pharmacist questioned the prescription. In a bulletin to pharmacists on Sunday, the state association wrote that it was "disturbed by the current actions of prescribers" and instructed members on how to file a complaint against physicians and nurses who were doing it. It's important to note that there is little evidence that the drugs work to treat coronavirus, although clinical trials are underway to find out.
The report mentions a man in his 60s who died after ingesting a version of the chloroquine commonly used to clean fish tanks. "The man, who thought he might have COVID-19, took a small amount of the substance in a misguided effort to treat his symptoms," reports ProPublica. "His wife was also hospitalized after taking the substance but survived."
"It's disgraceful, is what it is," said Garth Reynolds, executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, which started getting calls and emails Saturday from members saying they were receiving questionable prescriptions. "And completely selfish." Reynolds said the Illinois Pharmacists Association has started reaching out to pharmacists and medical groups throughout the state to urge doctors, nurses and physician assistants not to write prescriptions for themselves and those close to them. "We even had a couple of examples of prescribers trying to say that the individual they were calling in for had rheumatoid arthritis," he said, explaining that pharmacists suspected that wasn't true. "I mean, that's fraud." In one case, Reynolds said, the prescriber initially tried to get the pills without an explanation and only offered up that the individual had rheumatoid arthritis after the pharmacist questioned the prescription. In a bulletin to pharmacists on Sunday, the state association wrote that it was "disturbed by the current actions of prescribers" and instructed members on how to file a complaint against physicians and nurses who were doing it. It's important to note that there is little evidence that the drugs work to treat coronavirus, although clinical trials are underway to find out.
The report mentions a man in his 60s who died after ingesting a version of the chloroquine commonly used to clean fish tanks. "The man, who thought he might have COVID-19, took a small amount of the substance in a misguided effort to treat his symptoms," reports ProPublica. "His wife was also hospitalized after taking the substance but survived."
medical personnel should be first (Score:5, Insightful)
Any vaccine or treatment that reduces viral load should be prioritized for those who are on the front lines. And logically that can be extended to their immediate family, as letting a doctor's spouse get sick would mean that doctor may have to choose to stay home and provider care or continue working.
That doctors are doing this, even if it is a minority, says a lot about the lack of confidence they have in our health care system to manage this crisis. Don't be angry at doctors, take it as a warning. They are scared too.
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If it's anecdotal, you should let the doctors in Italy, S.Korea, Japan and Spain who are all using it with rather amazing results. Especially in critical cases. Interferon only works or it doesn't work that's all there is to it, on top of that it doesn't work well on all virii. If you want a red herring, interferon for the batflu is just that.
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It's not true for Italy, I guess it's the same for other countries
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https://drive.google.com/file/... [google.com]
That's the study they used as a baseline, I'm not at work and don't have my history directly available. But I'll see if I can find the original article referencing that they're using it in critical cases. Another poster linked some other places, Belgium is also using this in their cases too.
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I'll just leave this right here. [fiercepharma.com]
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A site built around pushing new pharma drugs and billing themselves as a end point seller, doesn't really fill me with trust as a valid source. Especially with people who've got less understanding of pharmacology then a grade 12 student.
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As for your comment about interferon, CPAM seems to think it's worth looking into. [elsevier.com]
Or is Elsevier also something you'd like to deride?
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If it's anecdotal, you should let the doctors in Italy, S.Korea, Japan and Spain who are all using it with rather amazing results. Especially in critical cases.
Do you have a source for this?
Re:medical personnel should be first (Score:5, Informative)
For China: https://covid-19.alibabacloud.... [alibabacloud.com]
Here's a comprehensive guide for treatment of covid-19 for hospital operators. Search for chloroquine:
https://www.alibabacloud.com/z... [alibabacloud.com]
South Korea (plaquenil is a slightly modified version of chloroquine):
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/W... [upi.com]
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Don't let your brain hurt too much, it's a valid spelling. [wikipedia.org]
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So, stop with the affectation of trying to appear literate, you're demonstrating exactly the opposite.
And here's [mandelson.org] something more authoritative than Wikipedia.
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Only for the smallest minority is the infection anything serious, for by far the majority the infection is nothing or not much at all, luck of the genes sort of thing and for them the best treatment do nothing, pretty much, site back and take it easy. As for people prescribing it and taking it off the shelves, just in case, that is pretty sick and really fucking cowardly. All the repeated capitalist governments fault, cutting back on public hospitals because the greed of the richest took priority and now t
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20% hospitalization rate isn't "the smallest minority"
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Actually, there have been a few more formal preliminary trials now, and it still seems to work.
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Which interferon?
Re: medical personnel should be first (Score:2)
Alfa, though the British are looking beta.
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Yeah, but let's be honest: chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, in this instance, is a red herring. Its efficacy is purely anecdotal.
You want to hoard something, hoard interferon. That's an actual antiviral med.
There is evidence that it works in a propalaxic way too. Some people take chloroquine for RA and other immune system issues. Folks who where taking chloroquine did NOT get the virus, or at least exhibited symptoms of being infected. Which has at least indicated that it *might* be helpful in treating the virus. We are studying that now. It may not prevent infection, but I'm hearing from doctors who have been treating patients with the virus that it served to shorten the recovery time as well as help with som
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Re: medical personnel should be first (Score:3)
Right, because Trump was president in 2015/2016. Wait, no, that was still Obama.
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Re: medical personnel should be first (Score:4, Interesting)
If you take event the slightest moment to read what those individuals call "false", "misleading", or "suspect" statements, you'd see that almost all of them are rhetoric or opinion. Every time Trump called something "perfect" or "beautiful"? It's marked down as a "lie" by the totally unbiased reporters of facts at the Washington Post. When they can't refute his factually correct claims, they turn to 'context' - such as by saying that the border wall being built isn't "new" by their made up definition, or that a steel and concrete barrier isn't enough "wall-like" for them. Glenn Kessler, the supposed head 'fact checker', has himself been caught repeatedly published straight up anti-Trump lies. His recent COVID tweets are an amazing collection of bad math, twisted definitions, cherry-picked statistics, and blatant contradictory falsehoods to push his personal narrative.
And yet you unthinkingly trust a political creature like that to report on the head of the opposition?
The fact that people like you uncritically believe garbage like this reveals a truly frightening lack in the modern education systems worldwide.
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Ontario stocked up on masks back then, and now they've expired. Last I heard they were checking if they were good enough to use.
It's a problem with a lot of this stuff, you need to rotate new stock in and every government lately seems to be more interested in austerity or at least only spending money on stuff that gets votes.
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That doctors are doing this, even if it is a minority, says a lot about the lack of confidence they have in our health care system to manage this crisis. Don't be angry at doctors, take it as a warning. They are scared too.
Thanks to Trump, as much as anything, we lost a couple months we could have been preparing,
If you are going to start into the political hand wringing.. I'll enguage you..
When do you suppose this "few months" where and what was happening here at home? Who on the other side of the isle was clambering for action on this? Let's be fair, unless Trump and his administration knew what was coming and ignored it, why are you now blaming him? Unless you (or someone you support) knew and was trying to prepare, all we have here is hindsight, being characterized as foresight and used to bash your politic
Fuck the link! (Score:2)
America's top expert recommended it (Score:3, Funny)
What do they expect when the top expert recommended it and said it's a game changer in the treatment of COVID-19?
Fake news, perhaps? (Score:2)
As recently as yesterday, experts were affirming that as a novel disease, there is no current human immunity, no treatment and no vaccine.
Who's right?
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No. Not that there weren't possible treatments (because antivirals do exist) but rather that there is no known "herd immunity" present in the application.
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In a single news cycle I can hear "experts" tell me definitively that this will last a month, or a two months, or 18 months, or forever. Even at high levels they seem to be pulling numbers from asses.
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Fair enough, yes...no *known* treatment.
We also do, incidentally, know how to kill COVID19 on surfaces, or even on the skin.
One can either use alcohol, no more diluted than 60%, or just plain ordinary soapy water. After about 20 seconds of contact with it, the fatty membrane protecting the virus starts to break apart, and the virus is deactivated.
This is why keeping your hands clean can go a long way to stopping the spread of the disease.
I'm compelled to wonder, however, with its vulnerability to
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I'm compelled to wonder, however, with its vulnerability to alcohol, would getting totally sloshed help combat it?
Only if you drink 120 proof spirits with your lungs.
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The LD50 for alcohol is 0.4% BAC. I'm pretty sure 60% BAC would never be survivable, though to be fair, you probably wouldn't care about the virus at that point.
Actually the evidence is fairly decent (Score:2)
When you look at risk/reward, there is pretty good evidence that we should be prescribing hydroxychloroquine more frequently and in fact, there should be preparation to ramp up production.
As for the man who died, that would be a combination of wrong dose and taking fishtank cleaner rather than the actual pharmaceutical.
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He took chloroquine phosphate (see my last link)
He mentioned both [newsweek.com], as have many other people.
But look at the difference in how the media covers different politicians:
Cuomo [forbes.com] (note he mentions both as well)
But because these morons heard Trump's speech rather than Cuomo's, we get this. [forbes.com]
That Trump even needs to be defended against this is what I find "disturbing", not
Consider that the drug companies are ramping up (Score:2)
Mylan and Novartis are greatly ramping their production of hydrochloroquine (trade name Plaquenil) without considering the small scale hoarding. Big pharma thinks there's something to this, why wouldn't physicians?
That also means that this is a short term supply chain issue and not a longer term shortage for people having trouble finding their meds. Those kinds of shortages have been more common in recent years as numerous drugs have had short term recalls.
https://www.novartis.com/news/... [novartis.com]
https://www.prnews [prnewswire.com]
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"Big pharma thinks there's something to this, why wouldn't physicians?"
Because it's not physicians' jobs to speculate on treatments for conditions they've never seen before?
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Like we're going to listen to a doctor named after a freakin' building. If he tries anything, I'll call my lawyer, John Skyscraper.
Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis patients are mad (Score:2)
If you go read the reddit subs for Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis, they are pissed that the medicne they take hydroxychloroquine is the new hotness for Covid-19. These people have literally been taking the medicine for years and now they can't get it because people are hoarding it. The dude who took the fish tank cleaner was an idiot. Otherwise, the drug is pretty safe and is used by a lot of people.
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The drug is absolutely not safe. It is packed in pills for a daily dosage. 3 pills are most of the time deadly. Only responsible people can use the drug safely ...
The internet, the time with every information at your fingertips. The time with the most stupid people ever occupying the planet ... oh the oxymoron.
I must admit, I've been self-medicating (Score:2)
Although in my case the quinine is in a gin & tonic.
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Wow that's amazing, I've been doing the exact same thing! Well, almost exactly. I mean, if you replace "gin" with "pepsi" and "tonic" with "chips", it's exactly the same thing!
This stuff is cheap ... (Score:4, Informative)
Post offices used to dispense these quinine tablets for free among the mosquito infested regions. My grandpa was a postmaster, and mom remembers distributing it for free during the malaria season.
So it is just a matter of days or weeks before India ships a few tons of this stuff.Cheaper than dirt.
But if you dont have malaria, over dosing on this is dangerous. And the reports of its efficacy against Covid-19 is just anecdotal. This is an anti-parasite medication against microscopic multi cellular parasite. Covid-19 does not even have two strands of RNA to make DNA. It is possible it works by attacking the RNA of the parasite. But still ...
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There are suggestions it interferes with the bonding mechanism that the virus uses to invade the cells. I suspect this is entirely unrelated to how it treats other diseases, but it is a simple enough chemical that it seems likely it may do many things. There are links above to a Nature article that seems pretty informative and unbiased.
Big problem to me is that it sounds like the chemical attaches to the human cells to block the virus, not to the virus. I would rather not have something that has to cover al
If its faud (Score:2)
Out them in prison. After about a dozen public arrest, that shit will slow considerable.
How Chloroquine Is Alleged To Work (Score:5, Interesting)
In order to understand how chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are believed to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we first need to review how the virus itself works.
When a coronavirus binds to a cell, it transfers is single strand of RNA inside the cell. Then ribosomes read the RNA and use it to make proteins. The first protein made by the coronavirus RNA is call RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP). The RdRP protein catalyses RNA replication. In other words, RdRP takes one strand of RNA and makes a (complementary) copy of it. It does this over and over, and in that way generates lots of new coronavirus RNA, which after being packaged in other proteins made by the viral RNA, forms new virus particles that go on to infect other cells.
The proposed mechanism of action of chloroquine is that it (indirectly) inhibits the action of RdRP. This makes it harder for the virus to replicate and spread, and thus making it harder for the virus to get ahead of the victims immune system.
Chloroquine inhibits RdRP by increasing the concentration of zinc inside cells. Inside the cells, zinc forms (among other things) zinc triposphate. It appears that when RdRP is replicating an RNA strand, if it needs an adenosine triposphate as the next link on the RNA strand, but a zinc triposphate is drifting by at the right moment, the RdRP will stick in the zinc triposphate where the adenosine ought to be. This gums up the mechanism and causes the RNA replication to stop. Or, at least, that is the latest theory.
RdRP is not a part of normal cell metabolism, so inhibiting it does not cause other problems. There are other (sometimes severe) side effects to chloroquine, however, so it should not be taken except under knowledgeable and expert guidance.
There is another drug, favipiravir, that also shows promise against coronavirus in early trials. Favipiravir works similarly to chloroquine in that it inhibits or impedes the activity of RdRP, though exactly how it does this is less clear.
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It does, sort of. There has been research with chloroquine that shows it working against all manner of viruses in the lab, going back decades. The problem is it generally doesn't extend to doing the same in actual living things.
Nothing to fear folks (Score:2)
Just a minor flu. That were the doctors word on national tv here in Denmark 3 years ago. They had 8 doctors taking calls from viewers. Less than one week later everything has to shut down.
Fantastic.
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Citation needed.
About that guy who dies (Score:2)
2) He ate something made for fish parasites. I mean, really? How effin stupid can you be? Strike 2.
3) He didn't bother asking his doctor if he had the virus, he just ate fish food based on advice from Trump. Strike 3.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Hoarders: 1, Doctors: 0 (Score:2)
Toilet paper hoarders don't look so bad in comparison now, don't they?
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Apparently it helps. Not against the virus itself, but you don't care anymore.
For 20 minutes or so.
BTW the Governor of New York says he would transform hotels into Hospitals.
I know a few hotels belonging to a certain person that would be just great as Wuhan-Virus-Hotel-Hospitals especially for minorities and the homeless.
Dibs on the Trump Towers penthouse.
Please have someone come in and refill the minibar again.
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Trump Tower is condos, not a hotel. Just to spoil an otherwise ok joke...
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Apparently it helps. Not against the virus itself, but you don't care anymore. For 20 minutes or so.
Ya, but masturbation is cheaper and just as "effective" as cocaine [news9.com]
A quick glance at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok will provide a slew of these fake cures: garlic, masturbation, bleach, even cocaine.
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a slew of these fake cures: garlic, masturbation, bleach, even cocaine.
Well yeah, you don't do them all at the same time...
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Me: Don't mind if I do!
Doctor: I mind. A lot. Don't do that in my office, please.
Re:Cocaine I presume (Score:5, Funny)
A couple goes to a doctor ...
A couple, both age 78, went to a sex therapist's office. The doctor asked, "What can I do for you?"
The man said, "Will you watch us have sex?"
The doctor looked puzzled, but agreed.
When the couple finished, the doctor said, "There's nothing wrong with the way you have sex," and charged them $50.
This happened several weeks in a row. The couple would make an appointment, have sex with no problems, pay the doctor, then leave.
Finally, the doctor asked, "Just exactly what are you trying to find out?"
"We're not trying to find out anything," the husband replied. "She's married and we can't go to her house. I'm married and we can't go to my house. The Holiday Inn charges $90. The Hilton charges $108. We do it here for $50...and I get $43 back from public insurance.
I guess this joke does not work in the US, where motels cost less than doctors :-)
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Actually indications are it works but in a "catalylist" way. I.e. it transports Zn+ ions across the cell layer which in turn disrupts the RNA transcribing process that the virus starts.
The question (after presumably a successful study is done) is being able to manufacture enough medicine for those that are crippled. Not unlike ventillators, it will be in short supply - and why countries are forced to shut everything down.
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I sure as hell trust someone that uses the word "catalylist" as if it was a real word. Not.
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BTW the Governor of New York says he would transform hotels into Hospitals.
That makes me glad to live in California where the quarantine started earlier and hospitals are not overwhelmed by coronavirus cases.
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"I saw one post on Twitter (can't find it again because Twitter Search), from a pharmacist saying exactly this - she got a prescription from a doctor for the malaria meds for himself, his wife and brother - she declined to file lit preserving those meds for someone who needs them."
Stupid doctor. Obviously you'd make it out to John Doe, Jane Doe and Jeanette Doe and send a homeless person to pick it up.
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Stupid doctor. Obviously you'd make it out to John Doe, Jane Doe and Jeanette Doe and send a homeless person to pick it up.
Forgery is often an easy crime to commit but the consequences can be severe.
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Any mistake on any part of the request is detected. GUI says no.
Any name thats getting interesting new meds would be noted.
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You'd think the opioid crisis would have convinced us that physicians who don't take prescription seriously should be stripped of their licenses.
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Anyone who believes in evidence-based medicine. There's no real evidence that it works, and there is significant real evidence that it's dangerous.
Education trains the logical faculties, but knowledge can still get overridden by the more primitive parts of the brain like the limbic. I suspect doctors tend to be better doctors to their patients than they are to themselves. Detachment is good for judgement.
Not dangerous nor ineffective (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone who believes in evidence-based medicine. There's no real evidence that it works,
There are a number of reports from several different countries [livescience.com] that in early trials it appears to work.
In fact that is evidence, why do you not believe evidence yourself?
Furthermore, the mechanism as to how it works against Covid19 [nature.com] is well understood.
Why do you not believe the very well understood science behind this medication?
there is significant real evidence that it's dangerous.
In fact it is taken widely already, but has a narrow range of dosages at which it is healthy - which is why it's a prescription drug. The army has many, many personnel taking Hydroxychloroquine regularly to prevent malaria. So to claim it is ""dangerous" is in itself, a very dangerous and ignorant claim given the potential benefit it can have.
Re: Not dangerous nor ineffective (Score:2)
Another thing to look at is the lack of Covid cases in the African continent, where malaria and people being treated for malaria are most populous. I know correlation, causation... but there is a link there.
I will just stick to G&T for now as the quinine in tonic water is safer than fish tank cleaner.
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A promising study is not sufficient for evidence-based medicine, particularly if it is not controlled. Every drug candidate starts out with promising biochemical justifications for trying it. Most of them don't work out.
Safety is a matter of finding a dose that is therapeutic but not toxic. Nobody knows what that is for COVID-19, and the fact that the therapeutic index for malarial prophylaxis is acceptable has no bearing on COVID-19 whatsoever. It might not work at all.
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We *don't* know it works for coronavirus. There are no studies of clinical outcomes. The study people keep referencing just measures nasal virus shedding, and a large proportion of those recipients *died*. The only reason that didn't deep six any consideration of this medicine was that the study was tiny.
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"There are a number of reports from several different countries [livescience.com] that in early trials it appears to work.
In fact that is evidence, why do you not believe evidence yourself?"
As long as you apply no standard of evidence, as Trump supporters like you will do, then anything is evidence. There is no "evidence" though, there are suspicions, suggestions, anecdotes but no scientifically gathered evidence.
"Why do you not believe the very well understood science behind this medication?"
There is, of
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To some, it's more a hypocritic oath now.
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prevent people from killing themselves by denying idiots the drug. Doctors aren't fucking stupid.
You do know, someone has to graduate at the bottom of the class don't you?
I've had good doctors, and ones who would prescribe amoxicillin for a broken arm. YMMV
The only stupider people I've had to deal with is lawyers, who couldn't open an attachment in an email, or read spreadsheets.
Re:Or maybe they are trying to (Score:4, Insightful)
The only stupider people I've had to deal with is lawyers, who couldn't open an attachment in an email, or read spreadsheets.
Because we all know that the ability to operate apps is the sine qua non for intelligence.
Myself, I think I'd rather that my doctor knows how to diagnose and treat before they started fucking about with spreadsheets...
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Hydroxychloroquine by prescription isn't really going to kill you. It's not the same as taking wtfever kind of dose from a tub of chloroquine designed to eliminate parasites in fishtanks. Chloroquine is more toxic to humans than hydroxychloroquine, and prescription hydroxychloroquine will have dosage information as a part of the prescription.
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It can kill you in higher dosages. The stuff for fish isn't really that much different, the dosage however is. You need to add 15mg/l, so a dosage (a teaspoon) for a whole fish tank is at least 1500mg (or more, depending on the size of the tank) and this is based on the fact the fish don't pick up every piece of the medicine. Human dosage is 500mg. You take a tablespoon of this stuff like those idiots that found some of it on the back shelf, you're talking 3-10x the regular dose.
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Hopefully the doctor-hoarders know the difference, but after Trump (falsely) mentioned on TV that chloroquine has FDA approval against Coronavirus, some people took the wrong one, and one person died.
Fake news. Trump was clear on the details. The news media got confused, or deliberately caused confusion, or was just sloppy in their reporting. Just one more reason to doubt anything you hear on the news: at best they're idiots, at worst they're actually trying to kill you because your death is a good story.
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Was he really clear? Chloroquine sulphate vs. chloroquine phosphate? Dosage strength, "one pill per day", and most importantly "ASK YOUR DOCTOR!"
I didn't see any of that.
Re:Or maybe they are trying to (Score:4, Insightful)
The couple ingested a cleaning solvent clearly marked [twitchy.com] as "not for human consumption". They didn't take any kind of meds off label, or anything like that. What they did was a dumb as drinking bleach because "chloroquine" sounds like "chlorine".
Meanwhile, the mastream press scrambles to delete [twitchy.com] their BS stories blaming Trump.
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Certainly the guy was an idiot, but the word "Chloroquine" by itself was used *extensively* by both Trump and by reports on what he said. I had not heard of "HydroxyChloroquine" until this article right here, actually.
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It's been mentioned by a lot of other people. [forbes.com]
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Yes but it seems to be mostly said along with and after plain "chloroquine". For instance from the quoted article, "750,000 doses of chloroquine, 70,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine, ..." I think also there were lots of statements about another drug (for HIV) though that one seems to have disappeared, perhaps it did not work out, and I was assuming the second drug mentioned was that one.
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OK, so your criticism is that he mentioned drug A while others were mentioning drug A and drug B, and therefore he deserves blame when someone does something stupid regarding drug A?
Skipping past how absurd the inference is, Trump seems to mention both [newsweek.com] in the reports [forbes.com] I've been able to find.
I'm sure some reporters didn't underst
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Hopefully the doctor-hoarders know the difference, but after Trump (falsely) mentioned on TV that chloroquine has FDA approval against Coronavirus, some people took the wrong one, and one person died.
Fake news. Trump was clear on the details. The news media got confused, or deliberately caused confusion, or was just sloppy in their reporting. Just one more reason to doubt anything you hear on the news: at best they're idiots, at worst they're actually trying to kill you because your death is a good story.
The actual quote: "And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. And that’s where the FDA has been so great. They’ve gone through the approval process; it’s been approved. And they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription. There’s tremendous promise. And normally the FDA would take a long time to approve something like that, and it’s — it was approved v
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Re:Or maybe they are trying to (Score:4, Insightful)
>"some people took the wrong one, and one person died [theguardian.com]."
Right. He had no symptoms, found some fish tank cleaner with the wrong chemical, ignored the warning label (that, no doubt, warned against ingestion), took a random/huge dose of it based on, I guess whatever looked like a nice amount, and, surprise, died. Stupid people do stupid things. There is NOBODY to blame but himself. The only reason this would make the news at all is political (big "eye roll" for "theguardian").
Water can kill you if you drink enough of it.
People die of acetaminophen (Tylenol) all the time because, you know, if 3 pills works well, then 12 pills must work much better, right?
20,000+ people will die this year in the USA from Fentanyl overdose. 16,000+ from Heroin. 12,000+ from Cocaine. 7,000+ from Meth.
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FYI, acetominophen must very much be handled with care:
"Acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause for calls to Poison Control Centers (>100,000/year) and accounts for more than 56,000 emergency room visits, 2,600 hospitalizations, and an estimated 458 deaths due to acute liver failure each year. Data from the U.S. Acute Liver Failure Study Group registry of more than 7
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If so, they are failing. If people are denied a proper prescription from a doctor, they might try eating fish tank cleaner or something.
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Or that they know that people will buy anything at any price if they believe that it works.
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Chloroquine isn't all that expensive right now. Hold on for some serious gouging in the near future though.
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There's a very small body of evidence showing it works against Covid-19:
https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
We don't know how effective it is in human patients, nor do we know how to best administer it.
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they hate Drumpf so much they can't admit he might be right about something.
That would be dumb. Accidents do happen.
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slashdot experts who are so blinded by hatred of Drumpf they automatically discount anything he says
I did not offer any medical advice I merely questioned the competency of any medical professional who would take the word of an utterly unqualified politician over their own medical knowledge. It does not have to be Trump - I would be equally appalled if one of the US's leftish politicians had said the same thing and people with medical qualifications believed it. These people should know better than to take medical advice from unqualified politicians.
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These people should know better than to take medical advice from unqualified politicians.
In a sensible country, unqualified politicians wouldn't be giving medical advice. That's what qualified staff and advisers are for.
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The false statement is "Everything is going according to plans."
The Joker was right.