A Liberal in Trumpistan: August 2, 2020: Hydroxychloroquine Not Worth Sh*t

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

August 2, 2020: Hydroxychloroquine Not Worth Sh*t

8/2/20: President Trump had a busy Sunday. He went golfing. Afterwards, he spent his day rage-tweeting.

Two health experts on his Coronavirus Task Force continued to undercut his idiot claims. He may have to replace his team of experts – who he ignores anyway – with the Demon Sperm Lady. (See: 7/28/20.)

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“Pathetic.”

President Trump

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Sunday, both Dr. Birx and Admiral Brett Giroir of the U.S. Public Health Service cut down some of Trump’s favorite ideas. The president, and even Don Jr., got excited last week when Dr. Stella Immanuel, the Demon Sperm Lady, claimed she had treated hundreds of people for COVID-19, using nothing more than hydroxychloroquine.

Giroir said it was time to “move on” from that idea. On Meet the Press, he explained that “from a public health standpoint, at first, hydroxychloroquine looked very promising.” Now there have “been five randomized control, placebo-controlled trials that do not show any benefit to hydroxychloroquine.”

So, was it working?

“There’s no evidence to show that it is [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted],” he said.

Essentially, what Adm. Giroir was saying, albeit in less blunt fashion, is that you would be just as well off mixing dried pine needles in your Budweiser as taking hydroxychloroquine and hoping for a cure.

The admiral did have good news to report. Healthcare experts now realize that steroids and the drug Remdesivir (a “bargain” at only $3,100 for a course of treatment) can reduce the death rate. Chuck Todd, his host, wanted to be clear. What about hydroxychloroquine? he asked again.

“I think most physicians and prescribers are evidence-based and they’re not influenced by whatever is on Twitter or anything else,” Giroir continued.

In other words, he meant: DO NOT LISTEN TO THE DEMON SPERM LADY ON TWITTER.

That left Dr. Birx, who had been criticized earlier in the week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker accused the doctor of presenting too rosy a picture of how the nation was faring. Sunday, Birx stuck a knife in the balloon of hot air that is President Trump, whenever he talks about the virus. Trump had spent the previous week bragging about how great he was doing, handling this crisis. Kids could go back to school. Everything would be fine!

Not necessarily, said Dr. Birx. In in an appearance on State of the Union, hosted by Dana Bash, she offered warning. Birx said she was watching twenty states, where cases were rising. “We are in a new phase,” she told Bash, “which is why I wanted to make it clear to the American people.” She said we were seeing some positive effects from “mitigation efforts” put in place by state governors. “What we are seeing today is different from March and April,” however. The virus “is extraordinarily widespread.” It was now in rural settings, as in urban areas. “To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus.”

“It’s super spreading events and we need to stop those.”

She reiterated. We should all wear masks. We should all be social distancing. We should all practice good hygiene. Not a syllable did she offer about the miraculous curative powers of hydroxychloroquine.

Bash mentioned estimates that the death toll could rise to 173,000 by August 22. Another estimate suggested 300,000 Americans might die by year’s end, unless we changed what we were doing.

The doctor was clear. The spread from one individual to another, that we could handle. “It’s not super spreading individuals, it’s super spreading events and we need to stop those. We definitely need to take more precautions.”

Bash wondered if states with a positivity rate of 5% or higher on coronavirus tests should reopen or remain closed?

“If you have high case load and active community spread, just like we are asking people not to go to bars, not to have household parties, not to create large spreading events,” she said, “we are asking people to distance learn at this moment so we can get this epidemic under control.”

This was not what Trump wanted to hear. That meant more furious tweeting. He accused Dr. Birx of getting baited by Speaker Pelosi. “Pathetic,” Trump said, summing up Birx’s TV performance.