It’s not just CNN: Media outlets keep leaving out that the Arizona man died after eating fish tank cleaner

Twitchy ^ | March 24, 2020 | Greg P.

[kevcol]

Many other media outlets aren’t reporting that the Arizona man didn’t die after ingesting the anti-malaria drug chloroquine. He died after self-medicating himself with a product used to clean fish tanks:

[The_Media_never_lie]

There is no excuse for the Reuters headline. Pure propaganda.

[Cboldt]

-- This will set back the FDA approval quite a bit. --

No it won't. Two different chemicals. The one that the press is misleading about is a known poison. It is not the same compound as the malaria prophylactic.

We allow and enjoy ethyl alcohol for drinking, but methyl alcohol is poison.

[RJS1950]

No, he did not say take chloroquine. He stated that there are several promising drugs including hydrochloroquine that are being test right now and that there is hope that these will work out. Again, he did NOT say at any time take chloroquine. More democrat propaganda.

[Zhang Fei]

... and a massive overdose of it, to boot

An Arizona paper that covered the story had a picture. Don't know if it's the actual product used, but this is what they featured:

I've read dosages of up to 250mg used twice a day. 10 grams is 40 doses. I gotta wonder how much they consumed. The stuff you get in pill form has a ton of filler. To measure this out properly, you'd need a scale sensitive enough to detect milligrams (.001g). That's something the typical kitchen scale isn't precise enough to measure. Amazon sells scales sensitive enough for ~$20. But it's not something Walmart carries in-store.

It's strange that this couple felt they had to buy this on the internet instead just going to their doctor and getting a prescription. Would have been marginally more expensive, but they would have gotten dosage instructions.

[Trinity5]

SO if Trump told someone they should have surgery and said person went home and cut their own gallbladder out you would have the same opinion? Sometimes when giving advice or guidance one assumes the person on the receiving end has some common sense...

[Pearls Before Swine]

A teaspoon is 1/6 of a fluid ounce. A fluid ounce of something with a specific gravity of 1 (like water) is going to weight 28.3 grams, more or less.

Most powdered organic substances will have a somewhat lower specific gravity. But then, most spoonfuls of powdered stuff are heaped a bit rather than level.

So, to guess that their “a teaspoon” dose was roughly a sixth of an ounce, or 4 to 5 grams, is going to get you to a massive overdose, of the order of 10 to 20x normal. If they had a 10 gram pack, maybe they split it?

[Cboldt]

My mistake .. it is the same compound.

Once a medicine has been approved for marketing for a certain use, experience may show that it is also useful for other medical problems. Although these uses are not included in product labeling, Chloroquine Phosphate is used in certain patients with the following medical conditions:

• Arthritis in children.
• High levels of calcium in the blood associated with sarcoidosis.
• Rheumatoid arthritis.
• Systemic lupus erythematosus.
• Various skin disorders.

https://www.ndrugs.com/?s=chloroquine%20phosphate

[Cboldt]

-- My personal opinion remains that the medical advice should really be given by the medical professionals. --

Medical device is offered by all sorts of people. Take XYZ for health!

The issue is more who TAKES the advice than who gives it.

Of course, to the press, Trump expresly suggested that people eat aquarium cleaner, but that's the press talking. The most dishonest people on the planet.

[Zhang Fei]

[He died from ingesting chloroquine phosphate which is a toxic aquarium cleaner, not unlike the phosphate detergents they banned years ago. ]

---

That’s the chemical name, which is unique. It’s the same drug. Thing is, for aquarium cleaning, they sell it in 10g bags of powder, vs the 250mg pills malaria patients get. So you need a sensitive scale to measure it out. My guess is - they took more than they needed.

[Zhang Fei]

[So, to guess that their “a teaspoon” dose was roughly a sixth of an ounce, or 4 to 5 grams, is going to get you to a massive overdose, of the order of 10 to 20x normal. If they had a 10 gram pack, maybe they split it?]

---

Wouldn’t surprise me. Some people will take dangerous amounts of Tylenol and ignore the 8 pill limit printed on the bottle. I suspect this couple was in that category.

[budj]

"...My mistake .. it is the same compound..."

That's OK, I was being sarcastic, anyway.

[Zhang Fei]

[A teaspoon is 1/6 of a fluid ounce. A fluid ounce of something with a specific gravity of 1 (like water) is going to weight 28.3 grams, more or less.]

---

Actually the sticker says 40mg is 1/8 tsp. So 1 level standard tsp would be 400mg vs the 500mg typically used for malaria patients. Gotta wonder what they in fact consumed to end up in the ER.

[babble-on]

The President: Now, a drug called chloroquine — and some people would add to it “hydroxy-.” Hydroxychloroquine. So chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. Now, this is a common malaria drug. It is also a drug used for strong arthritis. If somebody has pretty serious arthritis, also uses this in a somewhat different form. But it is known as a malaria drug, and it’s been around for a long time and it’s very powerful. But the nice part is, it’s been around for a long time, so we know that if it — if things don’t go as planned, it’s not going to kill anybody.

[kevcol]

President Trump (note the bolded part):

“And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately,” Trump said. “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.”

[Zhang Fei]

[well Trump said “take chloroquine, it’s the cure,” and the package said chloroquine. My personal opinion remains that the medical advice should really be given by the medical professionals.]

---

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what he said. If he had said that Tylenol works for headaches, and someone took 20 Tylenols and died, would Trump be to blame? With drugs, dosage and interactions are always an issue, even for OTC items. Why would a prescription drug be any different? And the fact that they bought aquarium cleaner instead of going the legit route through their doctor isn’t exactly smart. Any adult should understand that dosage and frequency are critical aspects of drug consumption.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Well, that would be lower density than I was assuming (I was guessing about .5 and some heaping of the spoon). But, maybe they used tablespoons, or maybe they each had a package. Who knows? These don’t appear to have been very precise people, and they may have been too sick to be accurate in their recollections, anyway.

[dangus]

Thanks for the clarification.

[pgyanke]

Trump: “Penicillin is a wonder drug that helps many people.”

Some idiot eats mold to try to live forever.

Media: “Trump killed that man.”

[trebb]

Yep - and they left out the amount he and his wife ingested and didn't say how sick they were before trying their stay-at-home self "medication"...

They want to make people afraid of what may be a viable treatment because President Trump said he has a good feeling about it.

[Trinity5]

And you can also die from drinking too much water. I’m not sure why you don’t see the issue was with the persons who self medicated based on what they heard President Trump say on TV.