Hydroxychloroquine: Logic, Evidence, & Irrational Opposition

One (despite the “politically correct” thought police so prevalent today) is entitled to have an opinion in a scenario where thousands of people are dying, and a good number (many hundreds) take drug X, and in fact, get well (often, dramatically and quickly so). It doesn’t take a science or medical degree (or any degree) to conclude that drug X may indeed be adequate to the purpose: anymore than it takes such knowledge to know and understand that water helps a dehydrated person or that insulin helps a diabetic, or that Tylenol alleviates headaches and toothaches.

There are not adequate studies about hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus as of yet (for lack of enough time having passed since this virus has sprung up), but what we do have is the clinical experience of an increasing number of doctors who have prescribed it and have seen its remarkable success (see the links below).

Hydroxychloroquine is already approved and established as an anti-malaria drug, so it’s not inconceivable that it may be effective for other conditions as well. Further research can substantiate that by the strictest scientific criteria. Right now, we are trying to save lives.

If I am a patient on my deathbed and the doctor says, “there is no hope for you except perhaps this one “semi”-approved drug, that has indeed helped many COVID-19 sufferers become well. Would you like to try it?” Anyone in their right mind would immediately say yes.

As an analogy, ancient peoples discovered that a certain mold helped to cure people. They didn’t know why or how it did so. All that mattered was that it made people well. When modern medicine came along, it discovered that indeed there was a powerful antidote and disease-fighter (i.e., an antibiotic) in particular kinds of mold. We now know it as penicillin (discovered in 1928). Now, was it rational to use the mold to heal folks before 1928? Of course, it was . . .

Another example is white willow bark: in use for centuries as a natural painkiller (I have actually taken a lot of it lately for a shoulder injury). Wikipedia states about it:

Hippocrates, Galen, Pliny the Elder and others believed willow bark could ease aches and pains and reduce fevers. It has long been used in Europe and China for the attempted treatment of these conditions. This remedy is also mentioned in texts from ancient Egypt, Sumer, and Assyria. The first “clinical trial” was reported by Reverend Edward Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, England, in 1763 with a successful treatment of malarial fever with the willow bark. . . .

The active extract of the bark, called salicin, after the Latin name Salix, was isolated to its crystalline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the acid in its pure state. Salicylic acid, like aspirin, is a chemical derivative of salicin.

So the effective pain-killing ingredient of aspirin was in white willow bark all along. Was it rational, then, to use white willow bark for pain, before aspirin was available (and before modern science and medicine existed)? Again, of course it was. The proof’s in the pudding.

It’s the same with hydroxychloroquine. We can know (in some sense besides the rigidly scientific) that it works from doctors’ case studies and hundreds of anecdotal reports, even before it is scientifically verified under the usual strict, controlled conditions.

The only reason, I submit, anyone thinking rationally about this would conclude otherwise, is because they have been drawn into the political hogwash surrounding anything within a thousand miles of being associated with the dreaded, despised, abhorred Donald Trump.

But if Trump says “2 + 2 = 4,” it still equals four, doesn’t it? Likewise, if he says, “hydroxychloroquine works to heal many people with coronavirus,” it still remains true if real formerly virus-plagued people are out there with their medical case histories, who have in fact recovered due to taking it. And it is true even though evil, wicked Trump (Vlad the Impaler and Attila the Hun rolled into one) agrees with the statement.

A thing is not true simply because someone (however famous or notable) said it was (genetic fallacy), nor is it untrue simply because a widely despised person said it was true (the same logical fallacy in reverse).

I’m only saying what hundreds of doctors are already saying (as the nine articles below document). I would never pretend to be an expert on medical issues such as this without that back-up. I have never told anyone — including coronavirus patients — to go against what their doctors say, and I have supported the shutdown, based on the experts’ opinions. The doctors are massively prescribing this drug now: in New York and my Michigan, where it is presently the worst in the US.

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Related Reading

“Dr. Anthony Fauci: No clash with Trump on malaria drug for coronavirus” (Tom Howell, Jr., The Washington Times, 3-22-20). Excerpts:

Anthony Fauci, the main scientist in the U.S. coronavirus response, says combining a malaria drug with certain antibiotics shows “anecdotal” promise for COVID-19 patients and that his push for more proof doesn’t mean he is clashing with President Trump.

“I think there’s this issue of trying to separate the two of us. There isn’t fundamentally a difference there,” Dr. Fauci, the director of the told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “He’s coming at it from a hope-layperson standpoint. I’m coming at it from a scientific standpoint.” . . .

“I’m not disagreeing with the fact, anecdotally, they might work,” Dr. Fauci told CBS. “But my job is to prove definitely from a scientific standpoint that they do work.”

“Governor Andrew Cuomo Coronavirus Briefing Transcript March 23″ (Rev.com, 3-23-20; [link] ). Excerpt:

I also asked for the FDA to expedite the approval of an experimental drug that we are working on here in the state of New York, which I’ll tell you more about in a moment. The President also did that. The FDA gave the New York State Department of Health approval to use on a compassionate care basis a drug that we think has real possibility. On the drug therapy, Tuesday we’re going to start the hydroxy chloroquine with the Zithromax. That’s the drug combination that the President has been talking about. The FDA approved New York State Department of Health to proceed with an experimental drug, again on a compassionate care basis.

“Dr. Stephen Smith on effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine: ‘I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic'” (Talia Kaplan, Fox News, 4-2-20). Excerpts:

Dr. Stephen Smith, founder of The Smith Center for Infectious Diseases and Urban Health, said on “The Ingraham Angle” on Wednesday night that he is optimistic about the use of antimalarial medications and antibiotics to treat COVID-19 patients, calling it “a game-changer.”

“I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I’m very serious,” Smith, an infectious disease specialist, told host Laura Ingraham. . . .

Smith, who is treating 72 COVID-19 patients, said that he has been treating “everybody with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin [an antibiotic]. We’ve been doing so for a while.”

He pointed out that not a single COVID-19 patient of his that has been on the hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin regimen for five days or more has had to be intubated.

“The chance of that occurring by chance, according to my sons Leon and Hunter who did some stats for me, are .000-something,” he said, adding that “it’s ridiculously low.”

Smith explained that “intubation means actually putting a tube down into your trachea and then you’re placed on the ventilator for respiratory support.”

“Hydroxychloroquine rated ‘most effective’ coronavirus treatment, poll of doctors finds” (Natalie, O’Neill, New York Post, 4-2-20). Excerpt:

Of the 2,171 physicians surveyed, 37 percent [i.e., 803 doctors] rated hydroxychloroquine the “most effective therapy” for combating the potentially deadly illness, according to the results released Thursday. . . .

The medicine was most widely used in Spain, where 72 percent of physicians said they had prescribed it.

“After mocking Trump for promoting hydroxychloroquine, journalists acknowledge it might treat coronavirus” (Gregg Re, Fox News, 4-3-20)

“French researcher Dr. Didier Raoult has now treated 1000 coronavirus patient with 99.3% success rate” (Tech Startups, revised 4-6-20). Excerpt:

In a follow-up study, which has a larger sample size of 80 COVID-19 patients, the team found a clinical improvement in all but one 86 year-old patient who died, and one 74-year old patient still in intensive care unit. The team also found that, by administering hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin, they were able to observe an improvement in all cases, except in one patient who arrived with an advanced form, who was over the age of 86, and in whom the evolution was irreversible, according to a new paper published today in IHU Méditerranée Infection.

We now have new updates. Tonight, Dr. Oz said during an interview that Dr. Raoult is about to publish the results of his new study. Dr. Oz announced that Dr. Didier Raoult has now treated 1000 coronavirus patient with 99.3% success rate. Of the 1000 patients treatments, 20 patients went to the ICU and 7 patients died. Dr. Raoult said the side effects were trivial things like rash etc.

“Navarro: “Virtually Every” COVID-19 Patient In New York Is Given Hydroxychloroquine” (Tim Hains, Real Clear Politics, 4-6-20). Excerpt:

White House economic adviser Peter Navarro said President Trump was correct to talk about “the possibility” that the long-used anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine can treat some symptoms of the coronavirus. . . .

“You may find this interesting,” he told the CNN host [John Berman]. “In the city that you live in, in New York, in the New York health and hospitals system, virtually every patient now that comes in presenting COVID-19 symptoms is given a cycle of hydroxychloroquine, and when I discussed this last night with Mitch Katz, who is the head of that system, I asked him, are you doing that because the federal government is telling you or because you think it may work? And he said quite clearly that it may work.”

“New updates from Dr. Vladimir Zelenko: Cocktail of Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc Sulfate and Azithromycin . . . “ (Tech Startups, revised 4-7-20). Excerpt:

Over the past three weeks, we’ve been sharing with you the great work Dr. Zelenko, a board-certified family practitioner in New York, has been doing in the treatment of COVID-19 patients in New York. In our last piece, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko treated 700 coronavirus patients treated with 99.9% success rate using Hydroxychloroquine, 1 outpatient died after not following protocol. In the meantime, more doctors are seeing success with hydroxychloroquine and Zinc Sulphate in treating coronavirus patients, according to one report from ABC News. 12 French doctors have also filed a petition calling on French Prime Minister and Minister of Health to urgently make hydroxychloroquine available in all French hospital pharmacies

Today, we have new and encouraging updates from Dr. Zelenko. In a one-hour video, Dr. Zelenko provides a detailed medical explanation about why his cocktail of Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate, Zinc and Azithromycin (not Z-Pak) works, and why the three-drug combination are really needed in killing coronavirus.

“Reports Are In: Malaria Drug Saves Lives in Coronavirus Crisis, Doctors and Patients Say” (Tyler O’Neil, PJ Media, 4-7-20).

Reports are in: Hydroxychloroquine is saving lives and President Donald Trump deserves praise for advocating the malaria drug as a potential cure for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. A small study in France laid the groundwork for using the drug in treatment. Doctors and patients across America have reported positive results, despite constant naysaying from left-leaning media outlets. . . .

Dr. Anthony Cardillo, the CEO of Mend Urgent Care in Los Angeles, said he is witnessing “significant success” in prescribing hydroxychloroquine to coronavirus patients.

“Every patient I’ve prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within eight to twelve hours, they were basically symptom-free,” Cardillo told ABC News.

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Photo credit: mohamed_hassan (10-14-19) [Pixabay / Pixabay License]

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