As NPR reports, and it’s worth a mention in this space:
The National Institutes of Health has halted its study of hydroxychloroquine, a drug President Donald Trump has promoted as a possible treatment for COVID-19 and once claimed to be taking himself.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the agency said that although it did not appear hydroxychloroquine caused harm to patients in the study, it was also “very unlikely to be beneficial.”
“The data from this study indicate that this drug provided no additional benefit compared to placebo control for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients,” according to the NIH.
The end of the National Institutes of Health’s study of hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for COVID-19 comes a week after the Food and Drug Administration withdrew its emergency authorization to treat coronavirus patients with the drug, citing danger from side effects with no measurable benefit.
The ignominious conclusion of months of low-information hype about this particular drug comes after President Donald Trump’s enthusiastic promotion of it as a treatment for the COVID-19 pandemic, stunning medical experts in May by announcing in a press conference that has was taking the drug “preventatively.” Misinformation over the supposed efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in treating the disease in turn contributed to conspiracy theories on the far right that the COVID-19 pandemic was overblown–and even being exploited in the service of nefarious leftist geopolitical aims.
Well folks, that all looks pretty stupid now, doesn’t it? Donald Trump took a drug that could have killed him for no medically valid reason and encouraged Americans to do the same, the federal government stockpiled millions of doses that it doesn’t need–and here in Colorado, Republican congressional candidate Steve House wishes he could mash the delete button too, as the Colorado Times Recorder reported in April:
Colorado Republican Steve House is encouraging the use of the malaria and lupus drug hydroxychloroquine to treat people stricken with COVID-19. [Pols emphasis]
Via his Congressional campaign, the health care consultant and former chair of the Colorado Republican party also paid for Facebook ads for a virtual event promoting the drug. The ads were served primarily to Coloradans aged 65 and over: “We look forward to discussing the latest research surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic and the early positive medical data concerning the use of Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19,” stated one of House’s Facebook ads…
House invited a conservative activist and physician specifically to praise hydroxychloroquine as his guest for a Facebook townhall event. The physician, Dr. Kelly Victory, not only promoted the drug, but dismissed the two primary concerns about its use for COVID-19: making it harder for patients currently taking the drug for other diseases to fill their prescriptions, and a documented risk for those with certain heart conditions.
To be clear, Steve House is not a doctor. We knew House well enough before this to know not to take medical or most any other form of advice from him. We also know not to let him run anything important like a Republican state party organization, though Colorado Republicans have yet to learn that lesson it seems.
You can add bogus hydroxychloroquine hype to the list of reasons Mr. House won’t be going to Washington.
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Hey, Moderatus warned us about this guy, didn't he?
Moddy's worship of Cynthia Coffman and hate for House is one of the only signs I ever saw that he's not a bot.
Hope the over-stocked medical warehouses trigger a cost reduction to the patients who actually NEED the drug.
That's the way the Invisible Hand of Supply and Demand works, right?
Amen to that. Lupus patients have had a rough go since the feds started hoarding the drug in service of the Great Fat Fool's financial interests.
Demand just got astronomical . . .
Hell, ya’ll are just giving every maga-hatted chucklehead all the incentive they’ve needed to start sprinkling hydroxychloroquine on their cornflakes every morning, . . .
NIH says . . . ????
. . . next you know Marble and Saine will be holding heavily-armed, red-hat-required, no-masks-allowed Freedom-to-Snort rallies . . .
Gardner will announce legislation plans to make it OTC . . .
Moderatus is scouring the righty web to find home recipes for making the stuff in a liter soda bottle . . .
The quackery doesn't help the brand, but just add it to the big pile of stupid ideas the Republican party has become.
Paging Dr. Gorka !
Identity Signaling.
It is insufficient to agree with Trump. To show that you are a true believer, you have to participate in the pageantry:
You left out Hawaiian shirts, so one can then identify with Trump worshippers, the Boogaloos.