Posted on 03/19/2020 10:51:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved hydroxychloroquinea drug used to treat malaria, rheumatic diseases and other conditionsfor COVID-19.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, scientists are scrambling to identify treatments that may be effective against the disease. Hydroxychloroquinea common derivative of chloroquineis among those touted as most promising by some experts.
"The nice part is, it's been around for a long time, so we know that if things don't go as planned its not going to kill anybody," Trump told reporters at a press conference. "When you go with a brand new drug, you don't know if that's going to happen. Its shown very very encouraging early results and we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately."
But how effective is the drug? This week, researcher Didier Raoult from Aix-Marseille University in France, one of the main proponents for using hydroxychloroquine to treat infection with the novel coronavirusknown as SARS-CoV-2released encouraging results of a preliminary trial involving a total of 36 COVID-19 patients.
According to a draft paperwhich has not yet been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journalsix of these patients were asymptomatic, 22 had upper respiratory tract infection symptoms and eight had lower respiratory tract infection symptoms.
Between early and mid-March, Raoult and his team treated 20 of these patients with 600 milligrams of hydroxychloroquine daily in a hospital setting. Depending on their symptoms, an antibiotic known as azithromycin was also added to the treatments. This antibiotic is known to be effective against complications from bacterial lung disease. The 16 remaining patients were not given the drug as a control.
In the study, the scientists observed a "significant" reduction in viral load in the patients treated with hydroxychloroquine,
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
I have prescribed hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) to 100s of patients. It’s usually a very safe, well-tolerated medication. Retinal toxicity is only seen after years of continuous use, not a 5-day course.
............. time for gin and tonics.
Tonic water has been unavailable for a few days already.
Word has been seeping out and people were cleaning out their favorite drinks anyway.
An analogy I like to use is cars and washing machines. You've been taking your car to work everyday for ten years and one day it fails, it won't start. You can't go over to your washing machine and say, "Take me to work." Cars and washing machines were made for different things. And you're just not going to have much luck substituting one for the other. Same trying to substitute a marlarial drug to cure COVID-19. You might get a limited positive response, but a coronavirus cure is going to have to be designed from the ground up to work on coronavirus, IMHO.
I believe Trump is the greatest president in American history. I love the man. But I think this is just a case of getting your hopes up a little too high for your own good.
“Tonic water has been unavailable for a few days already.”
Thanks. I hadn’t looked.
People have been talking about quinines for a while, as I recall based in Korean success using them.
I mean people here who read and aren’t hysterical.
Not the media or chicken littles.
LOL! Darnit, proven wrong again!
It's cheap. I believe about $5/dose. Also, so far, Trump has pushed insurance companies to cover costs associated with CV19, and if this drug works, I'm sure he will do the same here. Bayer just donated 3 million tablets to the USA, which should give us a decent stockpile. The military keeps it in significant quantities for all of our "adventures" in tropical sh*+holes, and it's also availible as a generic, and is prescribed for things other than malaria.
Still, as I type, I'm sure there are people lined up in Mexican pharmacies in Tijuana, Juarez and other border towns to buy every pill they have.
I don’t think modern tonic water has enough quinine to be a “tonic” for any illness. But that won’t stop people from panic buying every bottle they can find.
I bet they already sent out orders telling doctors not to prescribe it. Maybe someone could call their doctor and find out. I don’t have a doctor to call.
The FDA can resist all it wants, but China, France, South Korea, and Germany are using it. Should it prove as effective as advertised, there is no way the FDA will prevent its use here.
South Korea used Chlorquinine and zinc
I read that it is out of patent, and costs 5 cents a pill. So I don’t think insurance is the issue.
The issue was lawsuits and actual prosecution. With the FDA approval, you won’t get arrested for it now. So the only question is whether someone would sue you for side effects.
5 cents a dose.
The content in tonic water these days is so low as to be ineffectual
That news is not quite accurate. The FDA wants to do an expanded study first in regards to dosage. Here’s an article from Forbes.
Updated: Trump Says FDA Approved Anti-Malaria Drug Chloroquine To Test As Coronavirus Treatment
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/03/19/trump-says-fda-approved-anti-malaria-drug-chloroquine-to-test-as-coronavirus-treatment/
Here’s one from Fox News.
Chloroquine: What to know about potential coronavirus treatment
https://www.foxnews.com/science/chloroquine-potential-coronavirus-treatment
Thanks for the post, though! I forwarded some links and a research report file to a local nurse for a local doctor.
I watched the presser at lunch with potus and this dr. the dr seemed very on board with the use of this drug. just my opinion though from hat I saw.
They will try. Watch.
As others have posted, tonic water doesn’t have enough quinine in it to be medically helpful.
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