He heard something about these two drugs, and without any scientific evidence he announced it, causing a panic-grab for the drugs. Unfortunately even the CDC was saying we don't have evidence supporting it.
And? As I said, there has been some anecdotal evidence coming from countries like China, SK, and France indicating it could help. It shouldn't be a strike against a government official for sharing potentially important information. At a certain point we need to stop blaming people in positions of authority for the stupidity that exists among individuals in society. I'd rather my government be open and transparent than hide information from me because the more idiotic portions of the population may react poorly.
Its also worth noting that Hydroxychloroquine is unavailable in the US without a prescription. The "panic-grab" you are seeing is entirely due to physicians buying for themselves and their family/friends. Definitely sleazy, but they are hardly uninformed.
> Unfortunately even the CDC was saying we don't have evidence supporting it.
The CDC has proven itself to be conservative and slow to the point of harmful ineptitude. A huge part of the reason the situation in the US has diverged so much from countries that have managed to successfully clamp down on the disease (like SK) is because they insisted that testing rely on their own, overengineered procedures, and because they've insisted (for at least a decade now) that masks are only beneficial for HCPs, despite numerous studies to the contrary and the advice of nations like those in East Asia. Now, after the cat is well out of the bag, they've opened up testing to private companies and other testing procedures, and are now beginning to say that regular people should in fact be using masks to prevent the spread of the disease.
An appeal to authority is a fallacy on the best of days. Its even worse when said authority is in the midst of the most incompetent moment in its history.
Even if that wasn't a ridiculous stretch and was actually happening, that's on the shitty doctors, not the president.
He simply reported that it looked promising in early studies, like we had already seen reported here on HN. His other action was apparently to lean the FDA to find out ASAP rather than heming and hawing for years following standard beaurocratic protocols. I think it was fine to do both those things. Responsible even.
HCQ can only be obtained via a doctor's prescription. If there is a shortage of HCQ, its because actual physicians are writing it more, either for their own benefit or for their patients. This isn't the average person panic buying toilet paper. Its trained medical professionals. If you are implying that they are incapably of thinking rationally and professionally in response to a short, offhanded comment by the President, then the issue is far graver than anything Trump is saying.
> led to at least one death
Which occured because an elderly couple saw the news, realized that HCQ is in a chemical used to treat their fish tank, drank it, and one of them died. If I read an article saying a drinking alcohol in moderation can reduce heart disease, and in response I go out and chug a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, the consequences wouldn't be blamed on anyone but myself. If anything, it supports the idea that any partisanship in this situation is coming from those who are trying to pin every instance of something bad occurring, literally at the level of a single idiotic individual, on the POTUS.
No, hes a guy charged with making high level decisions in a crisis. He also has some very competent advisors at places like the NIH, FDA, CDC etc... I dont think he was just some redneck responding to a tabloid article.
If the doctor now publicly claiming 699 treatments with 0 deaths using HCQ turns out to be a blatant fraud I think he may well lose his license given the situation.
But yeah, let's fuck around and try nothing and see how that goes.
The odds seem good on that one.
"Zelenko’s claims, however, rest solely on taking him at his word: He has published no data, described no study design, and reported no analysis."
I don't think the boards of medical quality assurance of the 50 states care enough about public statements to yank the license of (or even to discipline) a doctor for making a public statement the doctor knew to be false. In general the US medical profession doesn't have the commit to truth that, e.g., physicists do.
We don't want scientific investments made because the president seems into them. We want those choices made by experts who are hopefully disinterested as possible. We want them considering the most likely successful treatments from their expert point of view.
You essentially can't have that now. And this goes beyond influence. The administration has been leaning on the FDA to give this ememgency approval.
This appears safe from the very preliminary studies we have but problems can develop at scale. These drugs are known to cause heart rhythm issues. It's conceivable that deploying then at scale in an emergency could lead to increase in fatal cardiac episodes. Were this drug not to actually work, large scale deployment would almost certainly do more harm than good.
The presidential podium confers added weight to everything a person says for good or ill and therefore should be used cautiously.
I find the "political" vs "non-political" distinction facile anyways.
Off-label usage is bad when this is a drug that other people (like those with lupus - see here [0]) need to survive - we need trials first and I'm not sure that is occurring due to the President. This is a problem created by too early messaging when you should be focusing on "stay home" and other clear communication that was absent for weeks before his focus on this drug.
[0]: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/31/opinions/hydroxychloroquine-c...
Let's not let the media tear us apart. Not everything is Trump's fault. Not everything is America's fault. And sometimes people who are not Trump or countries that are not America make bad decisions that cost lives. Let's acknowledge these basic facts and work together.
California and Texas seem to be making better choices than NY and Florida. America seems to be doing better than Italy and Spain but worse than Germany. It's not really a partisan thing and it's not really a national identity thing. It's an issue of who in what regions acted strongly enough, and when.
America is a federal system, so we would expect variance between the states, and that's what we're seeing. Same as in Europe. The federal government plays an important role (like preventing test kits from being developed outside the CDC -- bad -- and early travel restrictions -- probably good), but not the only role, and it shows.