Trump pins Coronavirus hope on the work of a climate skeptic

E&E News ^ | 03/27/2020 | Scott Waldman

[MrEdd]

Entirely fake news.
We had strong hints of the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine because of the passengers on the quarantined cruise ships before Peppe Le Piew entered the equation. That’s not his discovery.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Trump pins Coronavirus hope on the work of someone who actually understands statistics.

There. Fixed it.

[Fzob]

Being a climate skeptic enhances his credibility.

My first thought as well

[Chaguito]

“If you’re not a physician, you shouldn’t be opining on medical care.”

The governors of NV and MI are doctors? So, THAT’s how they can prohibit testing.

Irresponsible to offer “false” hope? How about irresponsible to foment hysteria and hopelessness with ginned-up false predictions?

[The Enlightener]

I personally loathe the fact that the media is playing up the fact that this doctor is a climate skeptic, but you have to read halfway through the article to see this:

he is an influential virologist

And the article seems to be a hit piece on how this doctor opines on stuff outside of his field without somehow mentioning that is actually is his field that we are talking about, you know, the one where he is a very respected and influential virologist.

It also fails to mention other studies that support his position, his own acknowledgment of the need to get more data on these drugs, other countries doing trials, or anything that would support his position. Instead, the tone of the article is yet another "orange man bad, so what orange man say must also be bad."

[freeandfreezing]

This is another example of a propaganda piece masquerading as a news article. Just about every sentence in it is misleading, or omits relevant information.

Let's just take one item. The article suggests that the study was conducted solely by Didier Raoult. But the actual paper published has many authors. Here they are:

Philippe Gautret,Jean-Christophe Lagier,Philippe Parola,Van Thuan Hoang,Line Meddeb,Morgane Mailhe, Barbara Doudier, Johan Courjon, Valérie Giordanengo, Vera Esteves Vieira, Hervé Tissot Dupont, Stéphane Honoré, Philippe Colson, Eric Chabrière, Bernard La Scola, Jean-Marc Rolain, Philippe Brouqui, and Didier Raoult.

I am sure an intrepid journalist looking into the unrelated opinions of the other 17 authors would find they had a great diversity of opinions. But that doesn't alter the underlying data they collected, or the experimental result they reported. Contrary to the idiotic mindset of the typical left wing propagandist, PCR DNA analyzers don't change their results based on feelings. That's why doctors, engineers, and real scientists rely on the proven scientific method to determine facts.

[freeandfreezing]

You are correct. The hints came from ships where, from what I recall, some passengers had started anti-malarial prophylaxis.

Do you remember more details, or have any links to publications?

The French team doesn't claim that they discovered the idea, it was tried also with SARS. They just ran a small but well structured clinical test.

[chopperk]

Nevandan governor is committing murder by fiat by outlawing meds that can control the Covid19. Suck it up Dems, you put the bum in office.

Govnas of NY and Ca. put Sancturary cities the law of the day but forgot to medically vet illegal aliens. Now their dumb constituents are paying for it with their lives. Suck it up!

[freeandfreezing]

As you noted the article is full on propaganda. Note that they included Dr. Fauci's suggestion about the need for more testing (which nobody is against) but omit Dr. Fauchi's statement that he would personally take the drug combination if he was infected.

The left wing anti-Trump media is working against the nation's response to a viral epidemic. That tells you a lot about what is important to them.

[Scarpetta]

I think the headline is missing the word “change.” Otherwise, a “climate skeptic” is someone who questions if there’s an atmosphere and weather related events.

[MrEdd]

I didn’t get a lot of details, just chatted with someone on a forum who had been one of the people who were on hydroxychloroquine. They had never felt in any danger during the cruise.

[lp boonie]

“If you’re not a physician, you shouldn’t be opining on medical care.”
_______________
I like it, which means journalists should not opine on anything. Hence, this article is trash. The stupid never see how stupid they are.

[freeandfreezing]

Here is another example of the propaganda being published by E&E, who should be ashamed of themselves.

"A study published this week in the Journal of Zhejiang University in China contradicted the Raoult study and found that hydroxychloroquine was not any more effective than conventional coronavirus treatment."

They repeat the conclusions of a Chinese study which may well be a Chinese dis-information effort due to its extremely poor experimental design. Assuming the paper is truthful at all, it represents a laughably bad experimental design.

The cited Chinese study compared the effect of the drug treatment compared to a control group, but the patients they were testing were already essentially recovered from the virus. As the Chinese researchers reported:

"The median duration from hospitalization to virus nucleic acid negative conservation was 4 (1-9) days in HCQ group, which is comparable to that in the control group 2 (1-4) days..."

But no one is reporting that hospitalized COVID-19 patients are recovered and virus free within a median time of 2 days, with some recovering in 1 day, and the longest recovering in 4 days. The patients in the control group had already recovered from the virus. Similarly, the treated patients, except for the 9 day patient, recovered in a median time of 4 days, with one of the patients recovering in one day.

Those patients were already recovering too. So an experiment based on giving a medication to patients who are already almost recovered is pointless, or intentionally designed to be misleading.

Here is the Chinese study they cited

[NonValueAdded]

Good choice

[SeekAndFind]

RE: “The median duration from hospitalization to virus nucleic acid negative conservation was 4 (1-9) days in HCQ group, which is comparable to that in the control group 2 (1-4) days...”

According to TechCrunch ( who also used a similar headline but cited the same study you posted):

“The study, which included 30 patients with a control of 15 who received no treatment, with the other half being treated with hydroxychloroquine, showed that there was a statistically insignificant difference in the number of patients who tested negative for the drug after a week.

During the study, those who received conventional treatment were provided anti-virals that are currently recommended for use in China, including Iopinavir and ritonavir. After a week, 13 of the 15 control patients showed no sign of the virus, while 14 of the 15 who were treated with hydroxychloroquine showed the same.”

So, what do we see?

One group DID use antivirals: including Iopinavir and ritonavir and 13 of the 15 patients showed no signs of the virus.

While the other group used Hydroxycholoroqune ( no mention of combo with Azithromycin ) and 14 of the 15 showed no signs of the virus.

So, the conclusion should really be — THE CHEAPER, WELL KNOWN ANTI-MALARIAL DRUG IS SLIGHTLY MORE EFFECTIVE THAN STANDARD AND MORE EXPENSIVE ANTI-VIRALS.

[desertfreedom765]

E&E News is pro green new deal/climate change etc.

They claim to focus on energy and environment. What makes them experts on virology? Nothing.

Just another left wing propaganda site.

What is telling is how invested the left is in causing mayhem with this virus/crisis. They are scared that a cure might be found quickly and cheaply.

Its obvious that this is Russia/Muller -> Ukraine/Impeachment -> Depression 2.0/Get Trump.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I think the headline is missing the word “change.” Otherwise, a “climate skeptic” is someone who questions if there’s an atmosphere and weather related events.

How about the more accurate term: MAN-MADE CLIMATE CHANGE?

That’s what the argument is about really — should we overhaul the economy and get rid of all fossil fuels in order to prevent our climate from warming?

[cuban leaf]

It used to be called AGW, for Anthropogenic global warming.

Maybe we should call it ACC.

[rktman]

That’s “NevaDUHns’ to you buddy.

[freeandfreezing]

You are correct, but the experiment still apparently was run on patients that were nearly cured when they started. The durations from hospitalization to no virus detected are so short that it is unlikely any of the drugs used were solely responsible for the results.

Or, alternatively, both the control group anti-viral treatment and the hydroxychloroquine treatment achieved astonishing results - ending a COVID-19 infection with a median cure time of 2 to 4 days, and in some cases in one day -- meaning after a single medication dose.