Posted on 04/30/2020 6:05:35 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert Wilkie on Wednesday defended the department's use of an unproven anti-malaria drug for treating patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, saying that the drug was only being administered for high-risk veterans.
In a letter sent to veterans organizations, Wilkie claimed that a recent analysis of those hospitalized in Veterans Health Administration medical centers led to "misinformation" about what was taking place at its facilities. He said that hydroxychloroquine was only being given to veterans at the "highest risk prior to receiving medication."
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"VA is adhering to these guidelines, only using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 in cases where Veteran patients and their providers determine it is medically necessary," he said.
Wilkie did not provide any details about how widespread the use of the anti-malaria drug is in veterans affairs facilities.
The letter came just a week after an analysis submitted for publication in the New England Journal of Medicine found that two primary outcomes for COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine were death and the need for mechanical ventilation.
The study's conclusion was based on a retrospective analysis of patients hospitalized in Veterans Health Administration medical centers with confirmed COVID-19 infections. While the study only analyzed 368 patients, it represented the largest analysis of outcomes for COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine. The study has not been peer-reviewed.
The findings "can accelerate our understanding of the outcomes of these drugs in COVID-19 while we await the results of the ongoing prospective trials," the authors said.
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The FDA has yet to approve a drug or therapeutic for treating COVID-19.
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(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
The drug was being talked about as a possible treatment.
Does anyone know the FIRST news stories that reported hydroxychloroquine as a possible effective treatment?
Who were the first reports and doctors who discussed hydroxychloroquine?
President Trump certainly wasn't the first person to mention hydroxychloroquine. How did it first get into the news cycle?
Dunno about media, but I chatted with a guy who had been on one of the quarantined cruise ships in mid January. The ships physician had said the reason he and a large number of other passengers did not contact covid 19 was because they were on hydroxychloroquine as an antimalarial regimen.
So certainly actual doctors were aware of hydroxychloroquine in late 2019 when this guy would have been on ship.
Dr. Raoult in Marseilles was one of the first using it and writing about it in the West. There were Chinese docs using it before him.
Of course. This is ridiculous that use of this commonly used drug has been propagandized by our media. Millions of people have taken this medication without issue. We are letting people die by not giving them the medication until Covid is very advanced and much harder to treat. If you get an infection in your finger, will it be easier to treat on day 1 or day 10 with an antibiotic? Common sense. Everyone I have talked to is scared of hydroxychloroquine “side effects” or says, “well I thought that doesn’t work”! Please people, tell folks that there is a medication for Covid- we could get this illness under control much more quickly and cheaply.
65000 Italians were on hydroxychloroquine for one reason or another before KungFlu ravaged their nursing homes and eldercare centers. Only 20 of those contracted the disease and none died or were hospitalized.
That's what we need to track down. The documented origins of medical personnel using and discussing the use of hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment.
President Trump didn't make it up. It was reported as a possible effective treatment by the media who were reporting the work of doctors who suggested it as a treatment.
Finding the original news reports would shut-down the media claiming Trump was promoting an unproven treatment.
We need to find and cite the first news reports by doctors about the use of hydroxychloroquine.
Truth finally overcomes DS propaganda. All naysayers should be fired and prosecuted for subversion. After veterans gave their all to defend this country, subverters now obfuscate the use of a drug that many vets took to stay alive while defending this country.
Not only that, but if you read how this study was conducted ( very high doses of hydroxy, no zinc, only given to very sick men over age 65, small sample group) ....its hard not to see that this study was set to fail and that veterans died as a result. Sacrificed to disprove Trump.
Contrary to Fake News from the Swamp, HCQ is NOT unproven. It is, in fact, proven every where but in the Swamp. he factual information about it shows that it is most effective when used early in the sickness. All that the VA proved with it’s ‘test’ is that if you wait until it’s too late, it’s too late.
As noted here, it was a French MD/PhD by the name of Didier Raoult and an MD in New York named Lev Zelenko who started treating people with a combination of HCQ/Zinc/Azithromycin. Also adopted in Turkey and China.
Both reported great results and both point out that it inhibits viral replication but does not cure the effects of later stage illness such as the damage done to the lungs.
It is beyond belief that the Left has taken up this idiot mantra against a simple therapy that actually works.
Suppose the safety risks are negligible but the drug is only, say, 20% effective. Well, 20% is better than 0%.
The drug is highly effective if used before exposure.
65000 Italians were on hydroxychloroquine for lupus or rheumatoid arthritis before the virus hit Italy.
Of those, only 20 contracted the virus and none were hospitalized or died.
>>Well, 20% is better than 0%.<<
And 95-99% is way better.
The country of Bahrain started giving HCQ two days after the first case was confirmed.
Deaths per million in UK/Italy/Germany/etc. are around 400 to 500 per million population.
U.S. experience is more favorable, only 188 deaths per million.
Bahrain: Eight deaths, total for the entire country, which works out to five deaths per million people. Five. And only one current case is listed as serious/critical. We have 56/million listed serious/critical or nearly 19,000 patients in that condition. Oh, and Bahrain had a lot of cases, over 1700 per million, though somewhat less than our 3200 per million, so that’s not a factor that would explain the radically different outcomes.
>>65000 Italians were on hydroxychloroquine for lupus or rheumatoid arthritis before the virus hit Italy.
Of those, only 20 contracted the virus and none were hospitalized or died.<<
The problem I have with a report like this is that it’s taken from an article about another subject and appears as a declaration at the end of the article with no reference to an actual study or formal report. Do you know of one?
I think China and France both announced success with it
ANother thing that seems to work is nicotine
The original study in Italian
That is not a study. That’s a news report of a study with no link and no citation so all we have to go on is the news report. Besides, it was just dropped into the article at the end. It wasn’t even the main subject of the article.
In these times, news reports are not to be trusted as we’re seeing repeatedly.
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