Just yesterday, yesterday, Dr. Fauci – a man who’s spent his life researching and treating infectious disease – answered a question about an anti-malaria drug treatment. Dr. Fauci said insufficient studies had been done to evaluate the usefulness.

Trump first said Fauci was 100% correct, but then used manipulative equivocation, saying that he had heard “very impressive things” about the treatment and we should know soon.

This morning Trump tweeted this:

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains – Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020

And

….be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020

According to Gov. Cuomo, who just addressed the issue in his press conference, the FDA has approved a 10,000 person study in New York to determine whether there is benefit to the medicine’s use in extreme cases, with no side effects that make the situation worse. I am positive they will move as fast as they possibly be can.

But any layperson can understand that Trump’s statement is – once again – meant to manipulate the country. Just like Trump stated that he “had a hunch that the mortality rate will be 1%” and that the flu mortality rate is higher than 1%, or when Trump said they had the virus contained and the number of cases might be done to zero in a week, Trump is again pumping up hyperbole without any basis to give people such false hope.

Forget the fact that the discovery of vaccines, the elimination of smallpox and the discovery of penicillin as an antibiotic would all dwarf any impact this drug combination could have even if it is found to be helpful.

But more than anything, Trump’s statement about “being put to use immediately” is referring only to the study – and it’s a study – and thus there is not even evidence yet that it works!

Even lay-people understand that a drug can have a real benefit on the problem it is used to address, yet cause side effects that are worse! Vioxx was a new anti-inflammatory drug that worked great as an anti-inflammatory drug, but then it was found to dramatically increase the chance one would have a heart attack. Many people died because they used a drug that “worked” it just had a bad side effect.

This is why we trust doctors who do this and evaluate this and don’t release the medicine immediately everywhere in the hope it works, or because they think it could work. Donald Trump is implying that the drug will be released immediately and be a “game-changer” likely because of his desperation to have this problem taken care of quickly so that he doesn’t take a political hit.

I suppose we can expect something like this every single day, multiple times a day. He shouldn’t be making any announcements that don’t precisely mirror what the FDA says. Governor Cuomo announced that they were beginning the study, and that’s it – he then moved on. Because Gov. Cuomo is simply interested in informing, but not manipulating. Indeed he probably doesn’t want to give false hope.

If you or your family member gets sick, and become critically ill, anyone who believed Trump would say, “Where is the medicine I was promised?” Only then would you be told the truth, “It is still being tested, we don’t even know if it works, and doesn’t make it worse.”

Trump is willing to give false hope, so long as people feel hope. Large numbers of people who have false hope benefit him politically.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected]