This will be a layman’s explanation. We all have questions, but we need to understand the answers. Know this, amidst all the chaos of this week, something amazing happened in a laboratory in France…..and… a hospital in New York. Yet, the media is mad as hell about it.
Grab a cup of coffee and let’s run through the particulars. First, we have to pierce the veil of the media narrative.
Beginning two days ago, the President began talking about promising results from studies on the drug Chloroquine, and the generic HydroxyChloroquine, when taken with a Azithromycin (which is a Z-Pack). Immediately, the FDA Commissioner, Stephen Hahn, came out to poo-poo the study and assert his bureaucratic control. In perfect lockstep, MSNBC and CNN accused the President of selling false hope to the American people. The separation between what the MEDIA claimed the President said, and what the FDA Commissioner said, is the source of contention, and where the panic-driven media have staked their claim of “the President is not compassionate”. Yes, it was the source of the argument between Peter Alexander of MSNBC and the President during the WH presser on Friday, March 20, 2020.
Stephen Hahn, the FDA Director is a bureaucrat, and this might be the source of the problem. We shall refer to this Rollcall article here: https://www.rollcall.com/2020/03/19/fda-walks-back-trump-claims-on-covid-19-drugs/ Follow the typical hyper-partisan verbiage of the text, and the LACK of reporting of the other side of the story from the Trump Administration:
…..it is unclear what policy changes are being pursued outside of the agency’s existing procedures. (The media does not understand Trump Time and does not understand the President of the USA does not require permission from the media to act during an emergency )
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the agency hoped that drugs already approved for other uses might be safe and effective in treating the novel coronavirus, and he encouraged doctors to consider the FDA’s “compassionate use” process to treat patients with experimental products. (President Trump compared “compassionate use” to “Right to Try” to explain it to the public, but Hahn didn’t like the comparison, thus the media assumed the President was ignorant.) Hahn hung his hat on the technical: The key difference between “Right to Try” and FDA’s compassionate use is that doctors, patients and drug companies that participate don’t need to get the FDA to approve the individual course of treatment. (In other words, in one situation Hahn’s FDA would be involved and in another case the FDA would not be involved…… again it’s all about Hahn and makes no difference to the public)
“The FDA didn’t reply to questions about Trump’s comments that potential treatments would be made available “almost immediately” or how data collected in foreign countries might inform the FDA’s decisions.” (Thus the MSM took this as a cue to dismiss the French study, the entire article barely mentions it) (We learned later, from congressman Mark Green, who is a former Army Flight Surgeon, and been briefed in a classified setting on Coronavirus, the medications will be given to those infected in the USA and data collected for further study, according to his interview linked below).
Trump gave an optimistic timeline for … remdesivir, an experimental HIV and antiviral drug that has not yet been approved by the FDA, and hydroxychloroquine, a drug approved to treat malaria and arthritis. Here are Trump’s exact words: “Clinical trials are already underway for many new therapies, and we are working on scaling these to allow many more Americans to access different drugs that have shown good progress,” Trump said.
But Hahn suggested that both products would only be available through some of the FDA’s current protocols until they were formally approved. (In other words, I am the bureaucrat in charge of the process and I own the process). Yes, Hydroxychloroquine is approved in the USA but not for this new disease. Hahn ….hoped clinical trials would be pursued to find out if hydroxychloroquine is effective. (Which does NOT necessarily mean he is ignoring the foreign data) In fact, from Hahn, buried later in the article: “If treatments that are known to be safe in Europe, Japan or other nations are effective against the virus, we’ll use that information to protect the health and safety of the American people,” he said.
Hahn talked about convalescing plasma (taking samples from those recovered to help those afflicted) and …. hoped these tools might provide relief for COVID-19 patients and provide a bridge for three to six months before anything is officially approved. (Again, Hahn exercising his bureaucratic control over the process and running up against a President who works in “Trump Time”.)
Trump said hydroxychloroquine “has shown very encouraging early results” in treating COVID-19 and that his administration would “make that drug available almost immediately.” Trump also talked to the Governors about the drug on Wednesday night. Yet Hahn wouldn’t commit to any timing for when hydroxychloroquine would be approved for treating COVID-19 or made available for that purpose. He said he wanted a clinical trial, which typically takes years. Yet, from Laura Ingraham, we see: Lenox Hill in New York among many hospitals already using Hydroxychloroquine with very promising results. One patient was described as “Lazarus” who was seriously ill from Covid-19, already released.
From FDA Commisioner Hahn again: “We want to be sure this is done well and right ….” Hahn said. Because it’s a drug that has been around for a long time, he said, “We do have a lot of information about the side effects of the drug, …helps in terms of expediting it.” But while he said that “we are working as quickly as we can,” he wouldn’t speculate on a timeline. (Um, we’re already using it in the USA, we’re not waiting on Hahn)
Hyper-Partisan again: Some of the president’s critics said the remarks were confusing and betrayed a lack of knowledge about how medicines come to market. “At the White House press conference today, President Donald Trump continued to spew misleading, overly optimistic and often incoherent statements about potential treatments for the coronavirus that may be on the horizon,” Michael Carome, health research group director at the liberal consumer advocacy group Public Citizen,….. (So glad to have the opinion of a hack – Can we imagine by this time, given a global pandemic and the pressure of an economic disaster, the President understands the process entirely?) Plus…… (Later we learned, Dr Rigano, co-author of the French study claims President Trump “has slashed more red tape at the FDA than any other President in history” – repudiating, with first hand knowledge, the claims of the President’s critics)
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/03/19/fda-walks-back-trump-claims-on-covid-19-drugs/
Therefore, we can see the media attempts to tear apart the President’s efforts, paint the Trump Admin as inept, and question his personal intelligence and judgement. It’s a political effort…. during a global pandemic, and intentionally misleads the public.
So………… what is the real story about a possible prophylactic or therapeutic or cure for the virus plaguing the world? Well, once the media/bureaucrats are out of the way, it looks good. Very good.
We heard about the study in France, with 40/40 positive results: Dr. Gregory Rigano, Advisor to Stanford Medial School and co-author of the study.
“Well controlled, peer-reviewed study” (Dr Fauchi claimed from the podium today this was NOT a peer-reviewed study and the media seized on this point) carried out by eminent infectious disease control expert, Dr. Didier Raoult, MD, PhD, Southern France, in which he enrolled 40 patients with a 100% recovery rate.
Rigano’s interview with Tucker Carlson: WATCH THIS (2 minutes)
Need more details? In the interview, Rigano gave a link to his twitter feed @riganoesq or his new website covidtrial.io and here it is https://www.covidtrial.io/
Link to the actual study includes an interview with Dr. Raoult found below. (7 minutes)
Study was immediately accepted to International Journal of Microbial Agents by Elsevier Pharma.
A cure rate of 40/40 is a 1/10,000 chance and VERY promising, statistically impossible to ignore. To put it in context:
A virus is said to be incurable (which is why anti-virals are so common and effective). First company to cure a virus was Gilead (which is currently in third stage trials with Remdesivir, confirmed by FDA Commissioner Hahn) when they cured Hep C. This is the second EVER possible cure for a virus.
This kind of news should be shouted from rooftops and ring across the world. Do we have any MORE proof? Well, yes, we do.
We heard the cocktail of Chloroquine + ZPack has also been tested in Aussie and China from various sources on-line and a US Congressman. So, we started looking for the actual sources and found the China study, but still looking for the Australian results (will update when we locate). Found another from Canada. The key is in the ability to shed the virus. https://twitter.com/MatthewEGunter/status/1240971280008073216
From China: Results are definitive.
“The drug is recommended to be included in the next version of the Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Pneumonia Caused by COVID-19 issued by the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China for treatment of COVID-19 infection in larger populations in the future.”
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bst/14/1/14_2020.01047/_pdf/-char/en
Booooommmmm! China is officially using Chloroquine as an effective treatment for COVID-19.
Abstract: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus is spreading rapidly, and scientists are endeavoring to discover drugs for its efficacious treatment in China. Chloroquine phosphate, an old drug for treatment of malaria, is shown to have apparent efficacy and acceptable safety against COVID-19 associated pneumonia in multicenter clinical trials conducted in China. The drug is recommended to be included in the next version of the Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Pneumonia Caused by COVID-19 issued by the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China for treatment of COVID-19 infection in larger populations in the future.
https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/32074550/full_citation
China study: The entire document, “study”, link can be found here: Breakthrough: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies Jianjun Gao, Zhenxue Tian, Xu Yang https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bst/14/1/14_2020.01047/_article 2020 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 72-73DOI https://doi.org/10.5582/bst.2020.01047Browse “Advance Publication” version. Here is the direct PDF to the China study: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bst/14/1/14_2020.01047/_pdf/-char/en
From Canada:
Conclusion: Chloroquine, a relatively safe, effective and cheap drug used for treating many human diseases including malaria, amoebiosis and human immunodeficiency virus is effective in inhibiting the infection and spread of SARS CoV in cell culture. The fact that the drug has significant inhibitory antiviral effect when the susceptible cells were treated either prior to or after infection suggests a possible prophylactic and therapeutic use.
https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-2-69
100% of virus gone in 6 days, sometimes 3 days.
Studied against a control group. The cocktail together works but small studies. Drugs are already being prescribed in USA. Data will be collected from those given to those who are currently sick.
Chloroquine is currently open and able to be prescribed right now, no restrictions, and Zpacks are readily available, according to Congressman Mark Green, former Army Flight Surgeon.
We know Hydroxychloroquine is a generic, “been on the market for over 50yrs, with a quality safety profile” according to Dr. Rigano and backed up by FDA Hahn above. AND………. we’re already using it.
There are 6 million tablets coming to the USA, from Teva in Israel
https://www.tevausa.com/news-and-media/press-releases/teva-to-donate-potential-covid-19-treatment-hydroxychloroquine-sulfate-tablets-to-hospitals-nationwide-/
And another 3 million tablets from Bayer in Germany. “Resochin, made of chloroquine phosphate and an approved treatment for malaria, is being evaluated in China for its potential use against COVID-19, the disease caused by the fast-spreading coronavirus.” ” Bayer said the drug is currently not approved for use in the United States and the company is working with appropriate agencies on an emergency use authorization for its use in the United States.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-bayer-idUSKBN21637E
Then, this announcement came in from Novartis and everyone took notice: 130 million doses!
So, what are we supposed to think?
When all else fails, use common sense. Notice the patterns and slice through the double-speak of medically-specific definitions. Here is a good explanation – 6 minutes.
We know Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine are malaria drugs. With 3 million Chloroquine tablets coming to the USA from Germany, 6 million Hydroxychloroquine tablets coming from Israel, 130 million donated from Novartis for worldwide use, …. Does anyone really think we are expecting a malaria outbreak in the USA? And would the President of the USA request such an emergency shipment, work 24/7 to gather that much material across the globe, for a potential malaria outbreak, when people are dying from COVID-19?
No, of course not.
All actions indicate the President and his team are trying to stop Americans (and the rest of the world) from dying and pulling every trigger they can find, slashing bureaucratic red tape, to do so. They need to get the media out of the way or the media needs to communicate clearly with the public….. and we sure as heck need to get the bureaucrats up to speed.
Fauchi, from the podium on March 20th, tried to explain to the media, paraphrasing, “We’re trying to make these medications available to the American people, while collecting information for the protocols required/desired by FDA”….. which would be the results of Chloroquine+ZPacks…… given to American patients….. which is already happening. I believe the Univ of Michigan will assemble results of 1500 patients for further analysis, but do not have a hard source. Most of us understand what Fauchi is trying to do here, but the media ignored it, focusing on the argument between Peter Alexander and the President, which was, in context, centered on this very issue….. and the media carried the headline of a US President which did not care about the people into the weekend.
In fact, if this works, we could be going back to work fairly quickly. Dr. OZ, familiar to most Americans, was ecstatic by these studies on Friday, March 20th. By Saturday March 21st, 8:15am Eastern, FOX and Friends, Dr. Chris Martenson, toxicologist, also explained results in these small studies, “Most promising thing we’ve seen thus far” and “pretty dramatic results”. And Dr. Martenson clearly explained what the President, Dr. Fauchi, and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn should have stated in a more clear way, “We’re going to be holding live trials”. In other words, we will closely monitor patients who receive these medications, but the USA is not waiting around.
It is as though the left would rather NOT have a “cure” or a “therapeutic” for the virus if Trump succeeds. The MSM media blue-check marks were furious and dismissive. The twitter mob was angry today about good news, and threw insults with ZERO knowledge about the study from France, Australia, or China. Sad.
Strange times.
There is our answer. The President of The United States has spoken.
