Posted on 04/10/2020 10:54:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The drug doesn't come without a certain set of risks, and no one knows if it can effectively treat COVID-19.
The president and some of his close advisors — desperate for a COVID-19 cure — are asking “What do you have to lose?” by taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a strong medication never adequately tested for efficacy or safety in COVID-19 patients. The correct answer to the president’s question, which he doesn’t seem to want to hear, is that we have our lives to lose.
The president acknowledges “I’m not a doctor” but this raises the question “What do doctors know about the drug recommended by the president?" Most doctors are aware that HCQ can be effective for patients with malaria, arthritis or lupus. If they were to follow the president’s suggestion and prescribe it for COVID-19 patients, they would also like to know that it will benefit some of those patients, at least.
This drug hasn't proven to be successful in treating viral illnesses
What is known? HCQ has been tested previously in several viral illnesses but never found effective. Importantly, there is no evidence whatsoever that HCQ can prevent COVID-19, and there is only anecdotal evidence that it improves the course of the disease. The reports that it can reduce the measurable levels of the virus in patients are seriously flawed, lack a valid control group and were released to the public with little, if any, scientific review. Proper clinical trials with HCQ are underway, but these will take months. In summary, doctors do not know if HCQ or any other drug now being tested is effective or will have any medical benefit.
Without any assurance of benefit, what do you have to lose? Most doctors rely on the FDA-approved label to evaluate the “risk” side of the benefit/risk equation for each presciption. The drug label for HCQ, and its close relative Chloroquine, are very clear about their risks and both contain a page and a half of stark warnings that include the possibility of blindness due to retinal injury, loss of consciousness due to low blood sugar, suicidal behavior, heart failure, potentially lethal interactions with other drugs, lethal heart rhythm disturbances and yes, death. When doctors prescribe HCQ, they expect that the risk of these potentially tragic side effects will be outweighed by some benefit.
Doctors are also trained to use their medical skills to evaluate the patient’s overall condition as part of the risk/benefit equation for a drug and to take appropriate measures to mitigate any risks. They know that some patients are at greater risk of developing side effects than others. Unfortunately, the patients at greatest risk for most of HCQ’s serious side effects are the same as the very sickest COVID-19 patients, e.g. those on respirators with low blood oxygen levels and with disturbances in body chemistry.
Continuous ECG monitoring is one of the methods used to prevent potentially lethal cardiac effects of HCQ and chloroquine. In many ICUs, computerized decision support systems monitor the patient’s electronic chart and send advisories to physicians when a drug’s risk exceeds safe thresholds. However, these surveillance tools are not generally available outside of the hospital and could not protect those who might try to prevent COVID-19 by taking HCQ.
Special exceptions are made for emergencies
Pandemics and other public health tragedies alter the usual norms and requirements of medical practice. When a life is in danger, physicians may decide to prescribe an unproven drug and monitor the patient for any potentially serious side effects. To enable such use, the FDA has “approved” the careful use of HCQ under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). It should be emphasized that the FDA did not approve HCQ as either safe or effective to treat or prevent COVID-19. Recognizing the unique situation doctors are facing, the FDA’s emergency authorization is for the “unapproved use of hydroxychloroquine” supplied from the nation’s stockpile but only for hospitalized adults and adolescents “for whom a clinical trial is not available, or participation is not feasible”.
The FDA’s EUA Fact Sheet should be carefully read by anyone contemplating prescribing or taking HCQ. Also, the public should know that the FDA is working hard to correct a problem at some public websites that post drug labels. Labels for 15 of the 49 products containing HCQ are out of date and do not contain the warnings found in the currently approved HCQ label or in the FDA’s Fact sheet.
In this crisis, our political leaders are grasping at straws and encouraging hope. When faced with a national medical crisis such as a pandemic, I encourage our leaders to defer to the medical and scientific experts who have the knowledge, skills and training to save lives and to not encourage unnecessary or unfounded risks with our lives and our safety.
Dr. Raymond L. Woosley is a professor of medicine at The University of Arizona, College of Medicine-Phoenix. He is the president of the Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics.
The drug label for HCQ, and its close relative Chloroquine, are very clear about their risks and both contain a page and a half of stark warnings that include the possibility of blindness due to retinal injury, loss of consciousness due to low blood sugar, suicidal behavior, heart failure, potentially lethal interactions with other drugs, lethal heart rhythm disturbances and yes, death. When doctors prescribe HCQ, they expect that the risk of these potentially tragic side effects will be outweighed by some benefit.
Millions take the drug and we see little of these rare side effects.
LMAO I KNEW this was YOU posting this article when I saw the title.
People have died from aspirin or penicillin reactions etc. The issue seems to be that they really really want to vaccinate everyone.
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And they really really really want POTUS to be wrong. These lefties have been on the wrong side of this pandemic since the beginning all in an effort to do the “anything you say we say the opposite” crap they do with POTUS. He says travel ban, and they say “STOP FEAR MONGERING THIS VIRUS IS NO WORST THAN A FLU” now they want to make history disappear and pretend they were on it since the beggining by screaming “WHY DIDN’T YOU DO MORE”
Same with HCQ. POTUS says it’s a potential game changer because of reports he was giving by doctors, and now all we have is “THIS IS DANGEROUS” without any perspective or context.
There is also the money angle. The globalists grifters all want billions more at the dirty fingertips, and that ain’t gonna happen with a cheap medicine already around for decades.
My understanding is that the HCQ is actually safer than the quinine we took while in the RVN, never have had to take HCQ but did have to take the quinine pills while in South East Asia.
What I remember most about them was they tasted like CRRAAAP.
But don’t run out of them, you get malaria like I did.
(bitter, nasty)
More uplifting and encouraging stories from the usual suspects.
according to this, Woosley is EMERITUS professor of medicine at The University of Arizona, in other words, a retired 77 year old has-been old-fart ...
https://bio5.org/about/scientists/raymond-l-woosley
Many but not all— erythema multiforme, toxic epidermal necrolysis, cardiomyopathy, cardiac conduction abnormalities and hypoglycemia can all occur acutely along with the usual nuisance side effects.
A number of individuals on this forum are talking about using hydroxychloroquine as a preventative, however, and used like that the risks are far greater.
Strange how many of us were prescribed hydroxychloroquine for no medical reason other than travel to certain areas. When I got my (multiple) hydroxychloroquine prescriptions, I got the page with the side effect listed, and I was told that almost no one has trouble with HCQ over the course of a month or so. Now, all of a sudden, it’s one step worse than chemotherapy?
It’s sad how much America’s enemies hate anything associated with President Trump, even a medication that he recommends. It takes a real loser to wallow that deep in malice for year after year. One year it’s “Stormy” and “Trump gets two scoops of ice cream”. The next year it’s “Russia” and “Trump’s tan is fake”. The year after that, it’s “bribery, no quid pro quo, no, we can’t find a crime, but there must be something that merits impeachment” and “Trump has a financial interest in a drug that is off patent and costs almost nothing”. Pathetic.
My intention was not to show what it does but rather present the side effects for those who seem to argue that it is safer than water (not that water is safe when drunk in excess).
Typical Journalist = “but Math is Hard”.
i just did a search for ‘How many people have died using Hydroxychloroquine, and can’t find a single provable case i nhte fist few dozen search results- I dound that 4 peopel in france died while on it, but they couldn’t link the deaths directly to the use of Hydroxychloroquine- these folks had Covid and likely had other conditions too-
I do however find hundreds, if not 1000’s of cases where people are being saved by using the drugs
Hey media- if the drug is so dangerous- where are all the deaths form it’s use?
The MSM are pure scum!
how many die from using Hydroxychloroquine? You can find all kinds of cases of people dying from drinking too much water
Also, “Some 829 000 people are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking-water,”
I’d say the deaths from water far far outweigh the deaths from Hydroxychloroquine- making water far more deadly than the life saving drug that is proving, over 65 years of use, to be extremely safe with only minor side effects or discomfort-
Given that everything is politicized nowadays, and politics trumps everything, the first question I ask when I read any article is, “what are the politics of the messenger?”
So, what are the politics of this Dr.?
I agree with you that HCQ shouldn't be used as a preventive as it would seem some have been suggesting.
though if there is a 1 in 100,000 chance of death by a side effect vs 1 in 20 chance of death(very sick patients) without using it. Then the choice seems clear.
[[can all occur]]
We don’t care about whether they ‘can’ occur- the question is ARE they occurring with frequency with HCQ? Also- all of those conditions can are are watched for and treated should they arise while on the drug- they are easily treated- they aren’t life threatening when under a doctor’s supervision, and like my previous post stated, I’m found no provable cases of deaths with HCQ usage (Doesn’t mean there aren’t any deaths- but given the hyperventilating left wing media’s hair pulling articles about the ‘dangers of HCQ- those numbers should be front and center in the search results- bnut nope- none are listed for that i could find- but mind you my search was rapid-)- (Only 4 cases in france where seriously sick people died while on the drug)
but 100’s of 1000’s of deaths due to coronavirus- The drug is very very safe- side effects are so rare, that i can’t even find the numbers for deaths from them online-
[[though if there is a 1 in 100,000 chance of death by a side effect ]]
I don’;t even think it’s that low- Look online, you won’t find any numbers for deaths from HCQ (At least i couldn’t find them)- Doctors prescribing it for many decades state they haven ever seen a death from it- and the people the prescribe it to are on it long term- for life-
I agree with you. Doctors usually drop HCQ the first sign of heart irregularities. Which means the death rate by the side effect might be extremely remote.
I took one every Monday for a year while in Viet Nam. I don’t know the dosage amount but it was a big pill. Got curious one Monday and decided to bite into it. Foulest thing I ever tasted. I’d liken it to a combination of battery acid and alum. Fifty years later I still vividly recall the taste. Even so, it worked. I didn’t get malaria.
“ Professor Didier Raoult has just released the results of a new Hydroxychloroquine treatment study involving 1061 patients.
It shows after being treated with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin, a complete virological cure was obtained in 91.7% of patients within 10 days.”
https://twitter.com/michaelcoudrey/status/1248424461163872260?s=21
ibuprofen, can cause Stevens Johnsons Syndrome (SJS). This condition causes blistering over the body.
ibuprofen can also cause stomach ulcer that will cause you to vomit up a substance that resembles ground up coffee beans.
Naproxin can cause color blindness
Anesthesia can mess you up for life-
alendronate (Fosamax)
risedronate (Actonel and Atelvia)
ibandronate (Boniva)
denosumab (Prolia)
Can cause your jaw to die
many many many drugs are far more dangerous than HCQ and doctors prescribe them every day-
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