This is a Vanity Fair Article where canards and mostly false information or information that is out of context is in red. My comments are in purple. I wonder how many Americans could have been saved if preposterous and irresponsible articles like these had not been published?
“CIA: Please Ignore Trump’s Medical Advice On Coronavirus
The intelligence agency has instructed employees not to take hydroxychloroquine unless advised by a medical professional, a warning that follows the president, and his allies, promoting the drug as a potential miracle cure“
BY ERIC LUTZAPRIL 14, 2020
For medical experts, the jury remains out on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19, given that the anti-malarial has not been sufficiently tested on coronavirus patients and comes with a host of dangerous potential side effects. And yet Donald Trump has continued to peddle the drug as a possible miracle elixir for those suffering from the deadly virus, touting mysterious, totally real acquaintances who have been cured by it. “Just recently a friend of mine told me he got better from the use of that drug,” Trump said in a batty press conference Monday. “So who knows?”
While Trump may be fine rolling the dice with a drug that has only anecdotal evidence to support its use—he suggested earlier this month that he may take the “beautiful” anti-malarial himself as a preventative measure—others in his federal government aren’t quite as willing to make lab rats of themselves. The Washington Post reports that the CIA has privately instructed its employees against taking medical advice from the guy who hosted the Apprentice. “At this point, the drug is not recommended to be used by patients except by medical professionals prescribing it as part of ongoing investigational studies,” the agency said on a website for employees. “There are potentially significant side effects, including sudden cardiac death, associated with hydroxychloroquine and its individual use in patients needs to be carefully selected and monitored by a health care professional.” To drive home the point, the agency added in bold: “Please do not obtain this medication on your own.”
Already, the dangers of listening to Trump over actual experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have been apparent; last month, an Arizona man died after ingesting a non-pharmaceutical version of chloroquine in an effort to self-medicate out of fear of coronavirus (report out of context; may have been a homicide). The potentially lethal side effects of the drug are not limited to the iterations used in fish tank cleaners. A study in Brazil last week was shut down after patients taking the drug developed dangerous irregular heart beats (Again a questionable study in a politized environment that may have involved overdosing patients). Another recent study suggested that one in 10 people who take the drug could be at risk for serious cardiac side effects (another very questionable study; all studies focusing on qtc prolongation in last year should be investigated for fraud) . And in March, the Mayo Clinic issued a guidance for physicians to help doctors identify those who are “most susceptible” to cardiac arrest thanks to the off-label use of the drug (erroneous).
“That’s inexcusable,” Mayo Clinic cardiologist Michael Ackerman said last week of comments on television from political and some medical professionals touting the drug’s potential for treating COVID patients that downplay its possibly deadly side effects.
It is inexcusable, Dr. Ackerman, but not for the reasons you alleged. I wonder how many Americans could have been saved if you and others who should have known better had not participated in this canard to demonize a safe, effective and available drug that had been approved by the FDA since 1955?