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July 23, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS) has submitted additional evidence to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in hopes of compelling the agency to relax its restrictions on the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat COVID-19 among the general public.
Last month, AAPS filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to compel HHS and CDC to release more of the tens of millions of doses in the government’s possession to the public. The FDA has not officially cleared the drug for COVID-19 treatment (it has long been approved for malaria, autoimmune conditions, and arthritis), but has allowed it “to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.” (At the same time, the FDA warns not to use it outside of trials or hospitals.)
This week, AAPS followed up by submitting to the court additional evidence of the drug’s safety and effectiveness.
“As confirmed by another recent study of thousands of patients at the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan, HCQ is both very safe and highly effective in treating COVID-19, reducing mortality by 50 percent,” the group argued. “Countries with underdeveloped healthcare systems are using HCQ early and attaining far lower mortality than in the United States, where (HHS and the FDA) impede access to HCQ.”
“The mortality rate from COVID-19 in countries that allow access to HCQ is only one-tenth the mortality rate in countries where there is interference with this medication, such as the United States,” AAPS general counsel Andrew Schlafly said, citing easier access to the drug in Philippines, Poland, Israel, Turkey, and even Venezuela.
Yet the group laments that a “perfect storm of politics in this presidential election year, along with conflicts of interest at the defendant federal agencies, has resulted in unjustified obstacles to access to HCQ, an inexpensive medication having a track record of more than 75 years of safety.”
In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, scientists began researching HCQ’s potential applications in treating the new virus – a development that was quickly promoted by President Donald Trump, after which partisans in media and government began a push to discredit the drug, from outlandish stories about a man who died after drinking fish tank cleaner to a junk study falsely claiming HCQ killed Veterans Administration patients.
Several early studies showed promise as a COVID-19 treatment, but a May study published in The Lancet purported to not only find “no benefit” to using HCQ, but instead finding “decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias,” leading several countries to ban it. However, that study was retracted upon the discovery that the company that provided its data was very likely fraudulent.
“The interference with public access to hydroxychloroquine is disrupting our political processes,” Schlafly said. “Perhaps that is what some want, in order to deter Americans from attending political conventions and even voting, but it is unconstitutional for the FDA to infringe on these constitutional rights by blocking access to this safe medication.”
This doctor is clearly refuting Fauci: https://twitter.com/JamesTodaroMD/status/1289563464499781632
@Misc could you post that link here?
@Brd6 Can you find even one study of HCQ with azithromycin and zinc, given early, which failed to work?
I don't see any at all. They all show it works, or the studies gave it too late, or missing zinc or az.
There's a follow up interview on YouTube with Risch, Steve Bannon and others that's also interesting.
I wish to apologize to all the businesses that were closed this week. I am not supportive of these actions and, for San Mateo County, I believe they are misdirected and will cause more harm than good. This action is a bit like looking for your lost keys under a streetlight even though you lost them miles away. If you have read my previous statements, you know I put great import on balance. We have to minimize spread while not destroying everything else in the process.
Q: Does hydroxychloroquine (brand name Plaquenil) work to prevent death from Covid 19?
A: Yes, scientific evidence indicates that it works very well if given early with azithromycin and zinc, before pneumonia sets it. After pneumonia starts, it does not seem to work well. The difference between early and late administration was the cause of much confusion at first, but now the evidence is very compelling.
Another source of confusion is whether zinc was also administered at the same time. Studies which include zinc show better results than studies of HCQ alone.
See https://c19study.com/ for all studies which have been done, 68 of them so far, 41 of which were peer-reviewed. Read the studies for yourself, as much as you have time to do.
8 Aug 2020: The https://c19study.com/ website is under attack, so if it goes down, refer people to this cached copy: https://patrick.net/c19study.com.html
HCQ seems to work by facilitating zinc transport across cell membranes where zinc can then harm the virus, thus the need for zinc. It seems unlikely that azithromycin helps disable a virus directly, but it does seem to help prevent death nonetheless, perhaps by preventing secondary infection.
I have not seen even one study of HCQ given early with zinc and azithromycin which didn't show clear improvement of outcome. Please let me know if you can find one: p@patrick.net
The studies which claim to show it doesn't work invariably either:
- overdose the patient with HCQ
- start far too late, after the patient has pneumonia
- omit zinc or azithromycin, or both
Comparing the death rates of whole countries which use HCQ vs those which do not adds more very strong evidence that it works.
Q. Why does Dr. Fauci dismiss HCQ then?
A. This is hard to know. It may be that he has not looked at all of the studies and has thus overlooked the difference between early administration of HCQ and late administration of HCQ.
Note that Dr. Fauci seems careful to avoid distinguishing between early and late administration of HCQ, which is odd. If you can find any instance of his making that distinction, please leave a comment on this page.
I had a conversation with one of Dr. Fauci's doctors by email, but he could not come up with even one study showing HCQ did not work, to counter my pointing out the many studies which show it does work. He showed me one study without zinc, but zinc seems to be essential for HCQ's efficacy.
Dr. Fauci demands a randomized double-blind trial with very strict conditions before he will consider recommending HCQ for Covid 19, but a very large number, perhaps the majority of medications used for the last 50 or 70 years across the world were not established by using randomized controlled trials. HCQ is already in use for 75 years and known to be safe. Why is Dr. Fauci suddenly demanding much stricter conditions for approval of HCQ for Covid 19 than for other drugs? It does not make sense.
Q. Why might drug companies dismiss HCQ?
A. HCQ is extremely cheap, limiting the possibility for drug companies to profit from treatment. So another motive to play down or dismiss the proven efficacy of HCQ may be the hope (conscious or unconscious) to profit from more expensive drugs.
Q. Why are the FDA and HHS blocking access to HCQ?
A. Again, it's hard to say. If HCQ is dangerous, why is it used millions of times a day for malaria, lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis but not for Covid 19?
Q. Why does the media keep saying that HCQ does not work?
A. I can see that it would be hard for them to let Trump be right about even one issue, but that fact is HCQ works if given early, and many thousands of people are going to die for no reason if we don't help them do the right thing by spreading the word.
Trump did not come up with the idea of treating Covid 19 with HCQ himself. The Chinese noted early on that their lupus patients were not contracting the disease, and surmised it was because they were all being treated with HCQ for lupus. From there, Dr. Didier Raoult of France did a preliminary study with great success, but seems not to have distinguished between early and late administration. Elon Musk tweeted HCQ as a suggestion which Trump picked up. "Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then."
Q. Why are Google, Facebook, and Twitter suppressing what the public can view about HCQ?
A. They are essentially the media these days. It's hard for them to get their head around this too, but the evidence is overwhelming now that HCQ will save many thousands of lives. If you know anyone at those companies, please, take a little risk and refer them to the science.
Q. Won't using HCQ for Covid 19 deprive lupus patients and arthritis patients of HCQ?
A. No, HCQ is extremely cheap and plentiful. Remember that it has been prescribed around the world for 75 years for malaria. There are huge supplies available, and it's cheap and quick to make more.
Q. You are not a doctor, so you have no ability to distinguish valid studies from flawed studies.
A. The idea that such unanimity of success with early HCQ administration could be wrong is simply not plausible, especially given the overwhelming evidence from entire countries which have been using it. See the graphs below.
Q. Why are doctors not speaking up about this?
A. Many are, see https://publichealth.yale.edu/news-article/26218/ and https://www.henryford.com/news/2020/07/hydro-treatment-study
Q. Isn't HCQ dangerous to the heart like the media says?
A. No, it isn't. HCQ is one of the most commonly taken drugs on earth because it is a standard treatment for malaria. HCQ has been on the WHO list of safe medications for years. Serious side effects are rare.
If HCQ is dangerous, why is it used millions of times a day for malaria, lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis but not for Covid 19?
Unfortunately, The Lancet published a fraudulent study claiming that HCQ was somehow suddenly dangerous. After an outcry by doctors, they were forced to retract the study, but the damage was done: the media widely reported the fraudulent results, but most did not report the retraction. Now many people falsely believe that HCQ is dangerous. Please point them to the retraction of the study in The Lancet:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/05/lancet-had-to-do-one-of-the-biggest-retractions-in-modern-history-how-could-this-happen
Note that hydroxychloroquine has has fewer side effects than plain "chloroquine", which is an older version of the drug.
Q. Can my doctor prescribe HCQ for me to prevent Covid 19?
A. No, you are not allowed any access to HCQ for prophylactic (preventive) use. It has also been forbidden by some states to use HCQ early where it is most effective. Even if you have been exposed to COVID-19, you often cannot obtain a prescription for HCQ in most states because regulators prohibit dispensing it without a positive test result, which typically cannot be obtained until late in the progression of the disease when HCQ would no longer be effective.
Q. If we are not allowed to use HCQ to prevent infection with the virus, why was Trump allowed to use it?
A. Good question.
Q. Why are you doing this?
A. We should all be spreading this message to save tens of thousands of lives. Think about yourself too. Avoid the regret of having said nothing while so many people were dying without need.
Q. What is the right amount of HCQ, azithromycin, and zinc to prevent death most effectlvely?
A. Not all possible ratios of combination have been tested, but here is Dr. Zelenko's protocol, with which he has had great success in more than 600 patients:
1. Hydroxychloroquine 200mg twice a day for 5 days
2. Azithromycin 500mg once a day for 5 days
3. Zinc sulfate 220mg once a day for 5 days
Q. Why aren't other countries using HCQ?
A. Many are, proving its effectiveness globally:
from https://aapsonline.org/preliminary-injunction-sought-to-release-hydroxychloroquine-to-the-public/
from https://c19study.com/
from https://twitter.com/gummibear737
Q. We can't trust those countries that show HCQ works, because they all look sketchy, and have younger populations to begin with.
A. The results are age adjusted. Those are the countries which tend to have malaria and have a lot of HCQ usage anyway.
How about South Korea and Israel?
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