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This is a research article published as information for health care professionals and public officials, and for an open peer review. It is not medical advice. Summary I reviewed the scientific literature on hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), azithromycin (AZ), and their use for COVID-19. My conclusions: HCQ-based treatments are effective in treating COVID-19, unless started too late. Studies, cited in opposition, have been misinterpreted, invalid, or worse. HCQ and AZ are some of the most tested and safest prescription drugs. Severe COVID-19 frequently causes cardiac effects, including heart arrhythmia. QTc prolonging drugs might amplify this tendency. Millions of people regularly take drugs...

Stir-crazy Italians will be free to stroll and visit relatives for the first time in nine weeks on Monday as Europe's hardest-hit country eases back the world's longest nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Four million people -- an estimated 72 percent of them men -- will return to their construction sites and factories as the economically and emotionally shattered country tries to get back to work. Restaurants that have managed to survive Italy's most disastrous crisis in generations will reopen for takeaway service. But bars and even ice cream parlours will remain shut. The use of public transport will be discouraged and...

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An anti-Trump Democratic-aligned political action committee advised by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is planning to deploy an information warfare tool that received initial funding from DARPA, the Pentagon’s secretive research arm -- transforming technology originally envisioned as a way to fight ISIS propaganda into a campaign platform to benefit Joe Biden. The Washington Post first reported that the initiative, called Defeat Disinfo, will utilize "artificial intelligence and network analysis to map discussion of the president’s claims on social media," and then attempt to "intervene" by "identifying the most popular counter-narratives and boosting them through a network of more than...

PING LIST - Please contact me as needed... COVID-19 Update As of 05/03/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Nations InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Counties InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:46 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Process JHU DataAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Document Core NumbersAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture Nations InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture States InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 00:00 PDST     WorldofMeters - Data Processing begins...As of 00/00/2020 ??:?? PDST    ...

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea against the use of Hydroxychloroquinine and Azithromycin in treating critically ill COVID-19 patients with a direction to make a representation before the Central Government. A three-judge bench comprising of Justice N V Ramana, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice BR Gavai was hearing a petition filed by an NGO named People for Better Treatment who has submitted that COVID-19 patients at present are receiving only symptomatic therapy because no specific drug has been invented till now for treating against the new SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Moreover the Ministry of Health and family welfare...

President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that a coronavirus vaccine would be ready by the end of 2020 and returned to touting an unproven treatment for the disease — on both fronts contradicting his own health officials as well as companies developing and testing potential vaccines. (Please see full article, with a copy of part of the video, at the link)

A California couple who allegedly refused to sign a coronavirus quarantine acknowledgment after checking into a Hawaii hotel for their honeymoon found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Borice Leouskiy, 20, and Yuliia Andreichenko, 26, were arrested after leaving their Waikiki-area hotel by special agents for the Department of the Hawaii Attorney General on Thursday. "We appreciate the vigilance and cooperation of the hotel staff, and staff at other hotels, in helping maintain the health and safety of visitors and residents," state Attorney General Clare Connors said in a statement. "It is important that everyone flying into Hawai'i...

Vice President Pence addressed his decision not to wear a mask at his visit to the Mayo Clinic last week during Fox News' virtual town hall Sunday, telling moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum that he "should have worn a mask" despite the fact that he and everyone around him have been tested for the virus regularly. "From early on the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] made it clear you wear a mask to prevent you from conveying the coronavirus to other people, and since the president and I are in the unique position... we're tested often, I...

U.S. regulators and state officials are finding a significant number of imported N95-style masks fall short of certification standards, complicating the response to the coronavirus crisis and potentially putting some front-line workers at greater risk. Recent tests by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that about 60 percent of 67 different types of imported masks tested allowed in more tiny particles in at least one sample than U.S. standards normally permit. One mask that Niosh tested, sold in packaging bearing unauthorized Food and Drug Administration logos, filtered out as little as 35 percent of particles. Another, marked...

The idea is as simple as it is apparently repulsive: allow human challenge trials (HCTs) under which “low risk” and healthy young adult volunteers in double-blind studies would be given trial vaccines (or a placebo) and then intentionally exposed to the novel coronavirus. This would accelerate the assessment of the trial vaccine’s safety and efficacy and more generally expand our understanding of this virus in a controlled setting. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 70 vaccines are currently under development, five of which are already moving to clinical trials. Notwithstanding these Herculean efforts, the earliest we can...

The good news is that you might get out of future jury duty, because when you are asked under oath about your own biases during a federal criminal case jury selection you would have to answer honestly by responding, “Your Honor, I don’t trust a damn thing anyone in the FBI says.” If the heirs of Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., were to go up on the stand and testify, the recent disgraceful revelations about how their bosses tried to frame LTG Mike Flynn mean you would be entirely correct to grant them the same credibility as the dude caught wearing a...

The “Donald Trump/Mike Pence Prayer Vigil” and “Pray for our American Heroes" Prayer Thread have Combined to Form the AMERICA PRAYER VIGIL Prayer Thread! Join with Fellow FREEPERS to Pray for our PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. 'And this is the Confidence that we have in Him, that, if we Ask Anything According to His Will, He Heareth us.' 1 John 5:14 Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind. Psalm 89:1 I will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord Forever: With my...

A white NYPD cop who claims she was harassed by a black supervisor for dating an African-American man told an administrative judge on Monday that the cutting remarks left her "with a pit in my stomach.” Officer Vanessa Weinbel’s boyfriend was not a member of the NYPD, but the white cop’s relationship with a black man incensed her black supervisor so much that the Queens lieutenant wouldn’t stop harping about it, Weinbel said. Among the insults Weinbel claims she endured from Lt. Rasheena Huffman at Police Service Area 9 in Flushing was that black men only liked her because she...

We need a more expansive phased reopening beginning on Friday. Gov. Roy Cooper has repeatedly told us he will use the data to help him decide when to ease his executive orders locking down huge portions of the state, and that is fine. Going back to the beginning of this ordeal, remember those orders were solely designed to “flatten the curve” to insure that hospitals maintained a reserve capacity to treat a predicted spike in Wuhan Virus cases. That being said: In those early days Gov. Cooper made a hard decision using the best data of the predictive models available...

The operation involved at least three boats, though only one was captured. One of its commanders sent audio recordings to Venezuelan military and police WhatsApp groups, calling for troops to rebel and take to the streets. Alemán, a Venezuelan lawmaker now living outside the country, said Sunday he had been involved in Alcalá’s operation in Colombia since last year. He said the group had to “make some adjustments” after a shipment of weapons destined for the camps was seized by Colombian authorities in March. Alemán said the plan was for the boats to land at La Guaira, home to Venezuela’s...

A former Green Beret has taken responsibility for what he claimed was a failed attack Sunday aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that the socialist government said ended with eight dead. Jordan Goudreau’s comments in an interview with an exiled Venezuelan journalist capped a bizarre day that started with reports of a pre-dawn amphibious raid near the South American country’s heavily guarded capital. An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general now facing U.S. narcotics charges to train dozens of deserting Venezuelan soldiers at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia....

Anxious to spur an economic recovery without risking lives, President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted that “you can satisfy both” — see states gradually lift lockdowns while also protecting people from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 60,000 Americans. The president, fielding questions from Americans in a virtual town hall from the Lincoln Memorial, acknowledged valid fears on both sides of the issue. Some people are worried about getting sick; others are reeling from lost jobs and livelihoods. But while Trump increased his projection for the total U.S. death total to 80,000 or 90,000 — up by more...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Cambridge police have issued an apology following a profanity-laced and politically-charged tweet Sunday afternoon. The tweet, was sent in response to a WCVB tweet of an OTR interview this morning with Representative Joseph Kennedy III. The Cambridge Police tweet used profanity in referring to Kennedy and made an insulting remark that was apparently about Sen. Ed Markey, who Kennedy is challenging in this year’s Democratic primary. Cambridge PD tweeted a statement after we contacted them. It explained that a member of the department, who had access to the department’s Twitter account, inadvertently posted the political commentary on...