President Donald Trump shared his optimism over a new Marseille, France study by renowned infectious disease researcher Philippe Gautret showing that anti-malaria synthetic quinine drug hydroxychoroquine used with azithromycin eliminates or cures Covid-19, the disease associated with SARS CoV-2 or cornoavirus. Speaking to the media Thursday, March19 at the White House, Trump praised the French study, giving hope to countless patients diagnosed with Covid-19. Agreeing to fast-track the drug under it “compassionate use” protocol, FDA Director Stephen Hahn said his department would do everything possible to approve the off-label treatment. Off-label treatment is actually common for FDA-approved medications, allowing doctors to use drugs for conditions other than the ones for which they were intended. Off-label prescriptions is a common practice in medicine.
Hydrocychloroquine, trade-named Plaquenil, was used by Gautre et al. at the University of Marseille in an urgent drug study to help ward off growing coronavirus deaths in France. France has 14,459 active Covid-19 cases with 562 deaths for a 3.8% death rate. Gautret’s team found complete remission from Covid-19 after five days, something Trump says is a breakthrough treatment. Standing by his side, 80-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed skepticism because Gautret’s study with only 36 subjects hasn’t been submitted for peer review or independent verification. Fauci’s the chief of Allegy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health [NIH], a research wing of Johns Hopkins Medical Center where many cutting-edge treatments are tested. Fauci didn’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for Gautret’s breakthrough treatment using equal parts of hydroxychoroquine and azithromycin.
Fauci, as head of NIH’s Alergy and Infections Disease, is the wrong person to talk about the efficacy of cutting-edge treatments. Hahn thought Gautret et al.’s findings were impressive enough to put the drug cocktail on the FDA’s “compassionate use” track. Why the octogenarian Fauci chimes in on Hahn’s territory is anyone’s guess. For whatever reason, the venerable NIH veteran, who researched the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemnic, should not be opining on cutting-edge treatments using off-label drugs to treat the coronaviurs pandemic. Pharmacies around the country watched supplies of Plaqeunil fly off the shelves when Hahn gave the green light for Gautret’s cutting edge treatment for SARS CoV-2. Fauci’s has had a major influence on the government’s response to slow Covid-19 from spreading rapidly by shuttering small-and-large U.S. businesses.
Recommending social isolation, distancing and hand-washing to “flatten the curve” of the Covid-19 spread has been Fauci’s mission. But beyond recommending that, Fauci dictated a path that has crashed Wall Street, promising to bring another Great Recession in 2020. Reports from Baltimore, Md.’s Mayor Bernard Young begging residents to stop shooting at each other underscore the consequences of robbing people of their livelihood. It’s one thing for the government to recommend ways to combat the epidemic, it’s another for the government to issue “shelter in place” orders, demanding U.S. citizens stop working. Fauci and government bureaucrats have robbed millions of U.S. citizens of their right to work based on “bending the curve,” to slow the progression of the disease. With the 26,863 total cases of coronavirus and 348 deaths, it’s only a 1.29% death rate in the United States.
Before it’s too late, White House and Congress must balance the deaths caused by a broken economy, spiraling unemployment and massive government debt. When you listen to Washington’s elected officials and the media, you’d think Covid-19 threatens to wipeout the entire U.S. population. When you consider the current epidemiology is .00007% infected of the total U.S. population, it’s outrageous that the government is destroying the U.S. economy. If people are robbed of earning a living, driven into more poverty and homelessness, unable to feed their families, the death rates will rise not from Covid-19 but from anarchy on U.S. streets. White House and Congressional leaders need to balance the need for disease prevention with the reality of creating the next Great Depression in the U.S.
When you listen to the 24/7 media hyping the SARS CoV-2 crisis like it’s Armageddon, the public’s been whipped into a frenzy when the probability of infection and certainly death remains low. While there’s noting wrong with aging infectious disease doctors urging steps to slow the virus spread, there’s something very wrong with elected officials going along without considering the repercussions. Whatever the damage from coronavirus, it pales in comparison to destroying the U.S. economy, especially for the poorest U.S. citizens. Trump was right claiming that his economic recovery has lifted many downtrodden citizens of all ethnic groups. Now well-intentioned infectious disease experts have slowed a virus while driving the U.S. economy into the next Great Depression. Before it’s too late, the White House and Congress need to get a grip.
