Posted on 03/27/2020 9:41:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The controversial coronavirus drug that a Hasidic doctor has been using to treat hundreds of people with moderate symptoms in upstate N.Y. is also being tried by doctors in at least three other states, and New York health officials have started using it to treat critically ill patients in hospitals.
The expansion in the use of the drug, the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, comes despite concern that its effectiveness in treating Covid-19 has not been tested in a controlled clinical study, and that demand for it could cause shortages that prevent access by people with other diseases who need it. Its embrace by the Trump administration and conservative political commentators has only intensified the debate over its use.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, who discussed his use of the drug in combination with antibiotics in a Forward article on Tuesday, had been contacted by President Trump’s new chief of staff, Rep. Mark Meadows. A person close to Meadows told the Post that the two had been in touch and White House experts were evaluating Zelenko’s protocol.
Trump had previous described the drug as a possible “gift from God” in the fight against coronavirus. Zelenko, whose practice is mostly ultra-Orthodox patients near the Orange County, N.Y., village of Kiryas Joel, told the Forward he had given the drug regimen to more than 500 moderately ill people and no more than a handful needed hospitalization.
The Post article said that in New York, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States with infections topping 30,000, state officials are now rushing to distribute the combination of hydroxychloroquine and antibiotics to those seriously ill with coronavirus and to study the results. A campaign to authorize the use of drugs that way would have normally taken nine months, but took only three days, the article said.
Yet even as such officials and some doctors rushed to deliver the drug cocktail to patients, concerns persist about the lack of solid science regarding its effectiveness — and shortages. Top health officials have dismissed as “anecdotal” reports of success by Zelenko and others.
Zelenko said in an interview earlier this week that his clinic near the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, in Orange County, N.Y., had given the drug cocktail to more than 500 patients, and none required hospitalization.
Dr. David Sullivan, an infectious-disease expert at Johns Hopkins University who studies malaria, and is familiar with hydroxychloroquine, said the drug might have a marginal benefit in fighting coronavirus, and could prevent some hospitalizations. But, he said, if it was a silver bullet like penicillin is for the strep bacteria, we would know by now.
And if New York State is counting on the drug, Nevada’s government is doing the exact opposite, the Post said: It’s banning prescriptions of the drug until more is known about how it works against coronavirus.
People with other illnesses, like lupus, definitely need hydroxychloroquine and are starting to have trouble getting it, due to the run on it triggered by interest in its coronavirus application.
“The data is limited,” said Dr. Rosy Joseph, a New Jersey internist who says she has given more than 50 patients with Covid-19 symptoms hydroxychloroquine, all on an outpatient basis. “But at this point there’s not much else that we can try.”
Joseph is a kidney specialist at Hackensack University Medical Center, and is familiar with hydroxychloroquine because she uses it to treat patients who have the auto-immune disease lupus. She said that initially she was only giving the drug to people who have high-risk factors for death from Covid-19, but is now giving it to anyone with moderate symptoms, because of the high rates of hospitalization of people under 50 with the disease in the U.S.
Joseph also said she has been in touch with a Crown Heights doctor treating hundreds of patients with the drug. A doctor at a veterans’ home in Oregon said he is treating 8 high-risk patients who tested positive for the virus with it.
“I’m seeing improvement within 24 to 48 hours but I can’t tell you whether that’s the course of the disease — I don’t have a control arm — or whether it’s the effect of the drug,” the doctor, Robert Richardson, said in an interview.
Indeed, one study of 30 patients from China recently concluded that giving the drug to Covid-19 patients provided no discernible benefit.
Since Zelenko, Joseph and the other doctors are prescribing the drug outside of a controlled study, it is impossible to have statistical data that indicates whether its use actually prevented people from going to the hospital.
That kind of information could soon come, from the study about to start in New York and from a clinical study being run by Dr. David Boulware, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota. His study is trying to determine if the drug can limit symptoms for people who have been closely exposed to the virus, and if it can prevent hospitalization among people who actually test positive for the virus.
“There’s a risk-benefit for everything,” Boulware said. “But if you don’t know that it works, then there’s a risk, but what’s the benefit?”
Oy! A Jewish doctor! You’d have to be meshuggeneh not to listen.
its being used in China, India, and lots more places, too
I’m getting kind of tired of articles with “secret miracle cure” in the headline, supposedly found by an obscure doctor, or a secret miracle cure found by some other obscure doctor, or a “fake” niracle cure touted by a stock-rigger, as if it was something new, and finding that each time they are referring to chloroquine. Variants of these articles have been appearing for weeks, and Trump himself touted chloroquine in one of his briefings.
It’s like none of these reporters knows what’s going on in the rest of the world.
Stopped reading at “controversial”.
The people who would write that are the same people whe believe that the statement that humans are born male or female is controversial.
What I’ve been saying for years. One of the things the Left has succeeded in doing is getting to define what is “Controversial”.
Two contradictory lines from the article:
Joel, told the Forward he had given the drug regimen to more than 500 moderately ill people and no more than a handful needed hospitalization.
Joel, in Orange County, N.Y., had given the drug cocktail to more than 500 patients, and none required hospitalization.
[[ and that demand for it could cause shortages that prevent access by people with other diseases who need it. ]]
Um— Israel is making millions of doses and sending them around the world and here-
The Rat hack in Michigan just banned it.
That kind of information could soon come, from the study about to start in New York...
Is this article two weeks old or something?
Did you notice on which dates the drug was given? Most times that sort of thing is considered sort of mandatory?
This is why it is critical not to either back down or move on from the “fake news” talking point.
Use it often in everyday conversation.
Use it to goad outbursts from leftists who firmly believe that it is your credibility which will be damaged. After issues like this corpseless decimation of the world population.
Be relentless.
Scum Democrats are doing whatever they can to stop this.
Unlike the Hundreds who are dead in Iran after consuming methanol thinking it was coronavirus protection!
I read that a company in Israel that manufactures Hydroxychloriquine sent 6 million pills yesterday to the US with another 4 million in the next month.
Reports from all over the globe are extremely positive that it works. Drugs have been around for decades. It is safe (in right dosage). Has it been exhaustively tested? Of course not! COVID-19 is pretty new; hard to have full testing completed. Do we wait? Hell no!
I know if I got COVID-19, I would demand it.
We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!
People are dying. This stuff works. Ramp up manufacturing and let’s get back to work!
This Dr. Zev Zelenko may be a total quack. However, he may be on target.
Corona out-patient treatment regimen is as follows:
My name is Dr. Zev Zelenko and I practice medicine in Monroe, NY. For the last 16 years, I have cared for approximately 75% of the adult population of Kiryas Joel, which is a very close knit community of approximately 35,000 people in which the infection spread rapidly and unchecked prior to the imposition of social distancing.
As of today my team has tested approximately 200 people from this community for Covid-19, and 65% of the results have been positive. If extrapolated to the entire community, that means more than 20,000 people are infected at the present time. Of this group, I estimate that there are 1500 patients who are in the high-risk category (i.e. >60, immunocompromised, comorbidities, etc).
My out-patient treatment regimen is as follows:
1. Hydroxychloroquine 200mg twice a day for 5 days
2. Azithromycin 500mg once a day for 5 days
3. Zinc sulfate 220mg once a day for 5 days
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A5ddw6_fk8Bv2ZjnRoLScXNfVWOUOv4MQyA7gXaKJyo/edit
Dr. Vladimir (Zev) Zelenko
Board Certified Family Practitioner
501 Rt 208, Monroe, NY 10950
845-238-0000
March 23, 2020
To all medical professionals around the world:
My name is Dr. Zev Zelenko and I practice medicine in Monroe, NY. For the last 16 years, I
have cared for approximately 75% of the adult population of Kiryas Joel, which is a very close
knit community of approximately 35,000 people in which the infection spread rapidly and
unchecked prior to the imposition of social distancing.
As of today my team has tested approximately 200 people from this community for Covid-19,
and 65% of the results have been positive. If extrapolated to the entire community, that means
more than 20,000 people are infected at the present time. Of this group, I estimate that there are
1500 patients who are in the high-risk category (i.e. >60, immunocompromised, comorbidities,
etc).
Given the urgency of the situation, I developed the following treatment protocol in the
pre-hospital setting and have seen only positive results:
Any patient with shortness of breath regardless of age is treated.
Any patient in the high-risk category even with just mild symptoms is treated.
Young, healthy and low risk patients even with symptoms are not treated (unless
their circumstances change and they fall into category 1 or 2).
My out-patient treatment regimen is as follows:
Hydroxychloroquine 200mg twice a day for 5 days
Azithromycin 500mg once a day for 5 days
Zinc sulfate 220mg once a day for 5 days
The rationale for my treatment plan is as follows. I combined the data available from China and
South Korea with the recent study published from France (sites available on request). We know
that hydroxychloroquine helps Zinc enter the cell. We know that Zinc slows viral replication
within the cell. Regarding the use of azithromycin, I postulate it prevents secondary bacterial
infections. These three drugs are well known and usually well tolerated, hence the risk to the
patient is low.
Since last Thursday, my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another
150 patients in other areas of New York with the above regimen.
Of this group and the information provided to me by affiliated medical teams, we have had
ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations. In addition, I have not heard of
any negative side effects other than approximately 10% of patients with temporary nausea and
Diarrhea.
In sum, my urgent recommendation is to initiate treatment in the outpatient setting as soon as
possible in accordance with the above. Based on my direct experience, it prevents acute
respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), prevents the need for hospitalization and saves lives.
With much respect,
Dr. Zev Zelenko
cc: President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff
Please pay attention to this report by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security regarding Chloroquine Poisoning
The drug chloroquine, currently being investigated as a potential treatment for COVID-19, resulted in multiple overdose deaths in Nigeria. In the short period after the drug was touted by US President Donald Trump, prices reportedly skyrocketed by more than 400% in some locations due to increased demand, despite a dearth of evidence indicating that it is effective against COVID-19.
Watch the commercials for FDA approved drugs. Many have potential serious side effects, some including death.
Actor Daniel Dae Kim took chloroquine as part of his treatment and he called it a “secret weapon” in his treatment. A French doctor gave it to some 100 patients and none died. All recovered within several days.
“Yes, this is the drug that the President mentioned the other day,” Kim said in Saturday’s video. “It is also the drug that Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned us about. He said that evidence that the drug was promising is anecdotal, and that is correct. It means it wasn’t studied, and it’s only based on personal accounts. Well, add my name to those personal accounts, because I am feeling better.”
Overdose deaths in Nigeria. The key word is overdose. The French patients were not overdosed.
Zinc is a good for dealing with colds. Overdosing zinc is not a good thing for the body. The key is proper usage.
“Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS Coronavirus infection and spread”- non.nih. Chloroquine is effective in preventing the spread of SARS CoV in cell culture. Favorable inhibition of virus spread was observed when the cells were either treated with chloroquine prior to or after SARS CoV infection. In addition, the indirect immunofluorescence assay described herein represents a simple and rapid method for screening SARS-CoV antiviral compounds.“
nlm.nih.gov - 2005-
If it worked for SARS CoV, then it’s not much of a leap that it might work for SARS CoV-2.
There real question is why wasn’t this drug tested and approved for use against SARS back in 2005? Trials showed it worked. If it had been approved, we could have tried this on CoV-2 when it first appeared, instead of just talking about trials 60 days after CoV-2 arrived.
Why do you think all the tension with Dr Fauci and Trump? Fauci has been part of NIH for 30 years, and they had chloroquine info for 15 years, but did nothing with it.
Daily maximum dose of Chloquine is 1,000 mg( 1 grams)/day.
2,000 mg/day is toxic and can kill the patient.
Their logic is asinine and they're playing politics with people's lives strictly because they want to score political points against Trump. It's like standing around while your house burns afraid to squirt water on it because your firehose hasn't been UL approved.
My take is the “none required hospitalization” was from an interview a few days before. The “handful needed hospitalization” was at the time this article was composed.
Respectfully, it’s not that they are afraid it won’t work, but they need to understand how it works and if it can do harm to a percent of the population.
It’s not a pharma greed thing. It’s not a dem thing,. It’s a “First Do No Harm” thing.
Not agreeing or disagreeing...just explaining.
If they sent 6 million doses, then do the math.
At two per day for 5 or 6 days. Thats 12. Times the people who have it.
That is enough for the entire dosing period for 4.8 million people.
Its a GD lie they are spreading. There is well enough to cover the entire population who have it.
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