Media heads explode after Trump reveals he’s taking Hydroxychloroquine: Trump appears to relish the reaction

American Thinker ^ | 05/19/2020 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

President Trump reignited the media firestorm over his endorsement of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a prophylactic against and treatment for coronavirus, revealing in response to  question that he is currently taking the drug and has been doing so for about two weeks.

To my eyes, he appeared to relish the bewilderment and outrage that immediately started brewing among the media facing him. Watch all four minutes for yourself:

I happened to be watching Neil Cavuto’s Fox News show when the program cut away to President Trump answering reporters’ questions following his meeting with restaurant industry executives, and so had the experience of watching a NeverTrumper go low immediately after the questions ended. Via Breitbart:

“A number of studies, those certainly vulnerable in the population have one thing to lose, their lives,” Cavuto said on his program following President Trump’s announcement. “A VA study showed that among a population of veterans in a hospital receiving this treatment, those with vulnerable conditions, respiratory conditions, heart elements, they died.”

“Those who took it, in a vulnerable population, including those with respiratory or other conditions, they died,” the Fox Business Network host continued. “I want to stress again — they died. If you are in a risky population here and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus or, in a worst-case scenario, you are dealing with the virus, and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you. I cannot stress that enough. This will kill you.”

“So again, whatever benefit the president says this has — and certainly has had for those suffering from malaria, dealing with lupus — this is a leap that should not be taken casually by those watching at home

[SeekAndFind]

President Trump also took exception to Cavuto’s treatment:

 

.@FoxNews is no longer the same. We miss the great Roger Ailes. You have more anti-Trump people, by far, than ever before. Looking for a new outlet! https://t.co/jXxsF0flUM — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2020

 

[EvilCapitalist]

I’m still waiting to hear his reaction to Nutty Nancy calling him “morbidly obese.”

[rfreedom4u]

Why does the media never address Pelosi’s alcoholism?

[2banana]

I am going guess half on congress is going the same thing.

[mjp]

Doctors, before every prescription or procedure,consider the ratio of benefit to risks and the ratio of benefits to side effects, and then make the decision of whether or not to proceed.If Trump’s doctor knew that Trump’s health was good enough, then he was right to prescribe plaquenil.

[TIElniff]

I wish the “Never Trumpers” would make up their minds: They want to get rid of Trump, but when he takes a medicine they don’t approve, now they are worried about his health and survival!

So, Pelosi, Cavuto, others, which is it? Trump or no Trump?

[allendale]

Uh. Cavuto is not a physician. Perhaps Cavuto should get his buddy Chris Cuomo on the record confirming if he did or did not take hydroxychloroquine. Now that would be interesting television.

[Jim W N]

Love it. Love watching their heads explode.

[1Old Pro]

I laughed out loud watching him relish his announcement. I looked at my wife this morning and said, I’m on it too, have been for a bout a week and a half...too funny.

[Peter W. Kessler]

I believe OANN will be receiving a big boost in the near future from President Trump. He’s mentioned them before, but will give a full endorsement very soon.

OANN isn’t slick or fancy. They are, however, honest.

[SeekAndFind]

Since Trump announced that he is taking Hydroxychloroquine and seems to have obliquely mentioned a "Westchester" doctor who has been successfull treating patients with it, It can be assumed that he was listening to Dr. Zelenko without mentioning him by name.

Media talking heads have exploded as soon as he made the announcement denouncing him as being reckless and endangering the lives of Americans.

Trump’s physician and Navy Commander, Doctor Sean P. Conley, released this statement explaining why he prescribed it to Trump:

Since Trump announced that he is taking Hydroxychloroquine and seems to have obliquely mentioned a "Westchester" doctor who has been successfull treating patients with it, It can be assumed that he was listening to Dr. Zelenko without mentioning him by name.

Media talking heads have exploded as soon as he made the announcement denouncing him as being reckless and endangering the lives of Americans.

Trump’s physician and Navy Commander, Doctor Sean P. Conley, released this statement explaining why he prescribed it to Trump:

[chris37]

They want Trump to die from the virus, so they don’t want him, or anyone else, on medicine that works.

[no_go_lie]

Cavuto looked like he was cavorting with the Democrats.

[central_va]

OAN = honest Free trader, open border, cheap labor, anti tariff hacks.

[alstewartfan]

If Cavuto wakes up tomorrow struggling for breath, he will BEG his doctor for HCQ.

[asinclair]

Because all these “OK, Karen” types throw their barbs at conservatives. Pointing out the flaws of liberals does not advance their cause.

[Buckeye McFrog]

A big F.U. to Dr. Tony, who strangely has gone suddenly quiet.

[alloysteel]

Just putting your reputation and money where your mouth is....

President Trump is dedicated to putting his faith in HCQ, zinc and azithromycin prophylactic to use.

Walk the walk so you can talk the talk.

[SeekAndFind]

The author's friend Mike Nadler, who happened to watching, too, was so outraged that he fired off an email to Cavuto refuting him, which the author shares with permission:

Hello Neil,

I’m whipping this together quickly because I was quite distressed about the dismissal of hydroxychlooquine by the doctor you had on your show today after President Trump revealed that he is taking it, along with zinc, prophylactically.  You cited the deaths in the report released last month of the VA study.  Here is some information you should be aware of about that study, and more.

The VA study by Magagnoli et al., which was posted on April 23, 2020 as a non-peer reviewed preprint, studied 368 patients of which 210 were treated with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) or HCQ plus azithromycin (AZ).  The study points to an association of HCQ with increased mortality but implicitly acknowledges its limitations as a retrospective study by concluding, in part:

"In this study, we found no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with Covid-19. An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs."

But the key finding of an association of HCQ with higher fatality rates appears to be totally bogus.  Three weeks ago, I circulated this devastating 2-page critique of the Magagnoli VA study by the renowned French infectious disease expert Didier Raoult et al.  The critique identified “3 voluntary biases…all pushing to the idea of dangerosity of hydroxychloroquine” in the VA study including  "two major biases,” one being that the finding of higher fatality rate for patients receiving HCQ is due to their being initially much sicker with lymphopenia than those who did not receive HCQ.

The critique starts off, "In the current period, it seems that passion dominates rigorous and balanced scientific analysis and may lead to scientific misconduct. The article by Magagnoli et al. (Magagnoli, 2020) is an absolutely spectacular example of this.”  It ends with:  "All in all, this is a work that shows that, in this period, it is possible to propose things that do not stand up to any methodological analysis to try to demonstrate that one is right."   I have not read of anyone trying to refute the points in this critique.

On May 5, 2020, the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease (the official journal of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Latin American Society for Travel Medicine) published the results of Didier and his colleagues own retrospective study of 1,061 Covid-19 patients treated with HCQ and azithromycin.  It concluded, "Administration of the HCQ+AZ combination before COVID-19 complications occur is safe and associated with very low fatality rate in patients."

 ***

Links to a few other articles on the subject are linked below:

Why we need a clinical trial of hydroxycholoroquine, azithromycin, and zinc ASAP - American Thinker

Coronavirus Medication -- Why Hydroxychloroquine Works for Some Coronavirus Patients but Not Others | National Review

Shoddy Hydroxychloroquine Journalism | National Review

NIH's New Hydroxychloroquine Trial May Be Destined to Fail

Dr. Fauci and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study victims - American Thinker

Zinc-hydroxychloroquine found effective in some COVID-19 patients: study - Breitbart

Is Big Pharma behind the great war on hydroxychloroquine? - American Thinker

Hydroxychloroquine application is associated with a decreased mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19 | medRxiv

Regards,

Michael R. Nadler, Ph.D.