President Donald Trump has continued his dogmatic and potentially dangerous advocacy of the use of hydroxychloroquine despite recent studies questioning its benefits (and possible risks) as a treatment for COVID-19. One doctor who disagrees with these reports, including some out this week, is Dr. Stella Immanuel. Immanuel’s views however have been censored by Facebook and Twitter after her video was removed as false information. That brought an attack from Trump over censorship and the President has encouraged action from Congress which is looking this week at the issue. However, Dr. Immanuel called upon a higher source for intervention. She has warned the companies that Jesus will shutdown the companies unless her video is restored.
I fail to understand the obsession of Trump with hydroxychloroquine beyond sheer stubborn denial. The studies are at best conflicted and seem increasingly skeptical of the drug’s use. However, I also object to the censoring of views by Twitter and Facebook, including Dr. Immanuel’s controversial stance that hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for COVID-19. As a free speech advocate, I have long opposed calls for greater censorship on the Internet and in social media. There is ample evidence to refute Dr. Immanuel’s view of the drug as a cure. Rather than silence her, critics should voice their own theories and cite their own studies.
Dr. Immanuel appears with other doctors recently for a press conference espousing the benefits of hydroxychloroquine. That led to attacks from liberals and support from conservatives;
Yet, Dr. Immanuel is not helping her cause with hyperbolic rhetoric. That includes a threat that Jesus will unleash a type of electronic or digital damnation on Facebook.
In her tweet Monday night, she promised “You are not bigger that God. I promise you. If my page is not back up face book will be down in Jesus name.”
Immanuel practices medicine as a pediatrician at Rehoboth Medical Center but is also the founder of (and minister with) the Fire Power Ministries church. On this occasion, she would be wise to focus on the former rather than the latter credential.
The issue for me is not the underlying medicine but the right for doctors to disagree and to be heard. Politicians, citizens, and corporations are now demanding that these companies censor opposing views on the Internet and social media. For example, in yesterday’s hearing, members like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) demanded that Facebook to “join the civil rights movement” by agreeing to remove opposing views. The thrust of the demands is to prevent people from speaking or opposing views to be heard.
I agree with the criticism of Dr. Immanuel’s claim of hydroxychloroquine as a cure and I believe President Trump has been rightfully criticized for his highlighting of this drug without sufficient supportive research. However, I was convinced on those points by reading both sides of the debate and ultimately came to my own conclusion. I do not require Rep. Raskin or these companies to decide what I should be able to see or read in reaching such conclusions. Indeed, what if the majority did believe hydroxychloroquine was a cure without support. Would that accepted truth then require the barring of opposing medical views that it is dangerous or ineffective?
I would leave both the Almighty and Zuckerberg out of this debate. It is ultimately about free speech and it is losing.
I support Trump on this issue.
Is this thinly veiled “racism” by Professor Turley?
Jonathan: I am a big supporter of free speech. Let Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton go on TV and say that slavery was “the necessary evil upon which the union was built”. Slavery was not a “necessary evil” but a crime against humanity. But, hey, let Senator Cotton loudly proclaim his racist views for everyone to see. But if your child engages in dangerous activities, like lighting fires in his bedroom, you don’t stand by and watch, You take his matches away. Trump’s “matches” are his tweeter account. .He keeps pushing hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for COVID-19 when hospitals here,WHO and the NIH have stopped testing the anti-malaria drug because the medical evidence shows the drug is not effective against the virus and can have severe adverse consequences for many patients. But Trump keeps pushing it because he is desperate to find a “cure”. He knows an effective vaccine is still many months, if not a year away, and the election is in November. So Trump keeps pushing the false premise that hydroxychloroquine is the answer and re-tweets a video by a quack doctor that supports him. Not only that but Trump criticizes and sidelines Dr. Fauci because the good doctor won’t support him on the so-called “benefits” of the drug.
This latest episode has gone way beyond the issue of “free speech”. Trump’s false and misleading information about the coronavirus is having deadly consequences. It was just announced that Herman Cain, a big Trump supporter and Trump’s nominee for the Federal Reserve Board, has died after contracting the virus while attending Trump’s rally in Tulsa on June 20th. Both Trump and Cain refused to wear face masks as did most of the attendees. Many, like Cain, have since tested positive for COVID-19. It seems denial can have deadly consequences. Just ask Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert who has refused to wear a face mask and has also tested positive. It seems a lot of Republicans have a death wish.
At a time when COVID-19 infections and deaths continue to rise dramatically the president of the United States should be leading the effort to contain the virus by informing the public with scientifically based medical information–not promoting “medical” opinions by quack doctors.But as a purist you apparently believe the “free speech” rights of the president trump all other considerations–like life and death–like the right of the American people to have factual information about their health and safety and that of their loved ones. I say when it comes to my health and safety and that of my family Trump’s “free speech” rights end at my front door!.
Dennis McIntyre,
“the medical evidence shows the drug is not effective against the virus and can have severe adverse consequences for many patients. ”
The studies in question have either used such terrible data that the studies were withdrawn (as in the case of The Lancet paper and one from NEJM) (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01695-w), used dangerous doses of HCQ (as in the Brazil study):
“The Manaus’ study with chloroquine (CQ) performed here in Brazil and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) [1], is emblematic to this discussion of “science”. Scientists there used, the manuscript reveals, lethal doses in debilitated patients, many in severe conditions and with comorbidities. The profiles of the groups do not seem to have been “randomized”, since a clear “preference” in the HIGH DOSE group for risk factors is noted. Chloroquine, which is more toxic than HCQ, was used, and it seems that they even made “childish mistakes” in simple stoichiometric calculations, doubling the dosage with the error.” (https://conexaopolitica.com.br/ultimas/brazilian-scientists-and-academics-write-an-open-letter-on-the-science-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic/)
It is zinc that is most effective against the virus. HCQ helps cells with the uptake of this micronutrient.
PLoS Pathogens. November 2010. “Zn2+ Inhibits Coronavirus and Arterivirus RNA Polymerase Activity In Vitro and Zinc Ionophores Block the Replication of These Viruses in Cell Culture.” Aartjan J. W. te Velthuis
International Journal of Molecular Medicine. April 2020. “Zinc and respiratory tract infections: Perspectives for COVID‐19 (Review)” ANATOLY V. SKALNY, et al.
“like the right of the American people to have factual information about their health and safety and that of their loved ones.”
Yes, that would be nice. It is particularly perplexing, then, that HCQ + zinc have been unjustly maligned and helpful data regarding both conveniently ignored.
As funny as this is, I only wish that it would be true.
I do not require Rep. Raskin or these companies to decide what I should be able to see or read in reaching such conclusions.
Oh, but you have no problem if people that don’t agree with your opinion on HCQ are denied the right to have that drug available for their own treatment. If you don’t want HCQ prescribed for you and your family’s potential treatment, that is your right. But you are advocating denying others the right to choose that treatment option. That makes your feckless advocacy for free speech ring even more hollow given your position on other freedoms.
Olly, Science is ‘not’ a matter of opinion. Not outside the rightwing bubble.
Science is a method. It is based on hypotheses. A hypothesis is in effect, an opinon, but one about empirical phenomena that can be tested, and verified, or disproven.
The hypothesis that hcq+ zincv + zpac is an effective prophylaxis was advanced by a French doctor who treated hundreds of covid patients early on and published results.
There has been a lot of fudging from those trying to disprove the hypothesis, which was based on flawed experimental design
Indeed many of the “studies” were not experiments at all, just data analysis, of differing degrees of validity.
There is no dogmatic proof that hcq+ zinc + zpac does not work as a prophyaxis, for pre-exposure or early exposure treatment.
There is very much an agreement on one thing, and that is, once the covid is damaging the lungs already, the treatment is ineffective.
There has been a lot of fudging and lying about this but an objective analysis of medical literature reveals that the precise efficacy of the treatment has not been established nor disproven
For that we would need a sufficient sample size, based on a double blind placebo experiment, which is the gold standard of proof in medical therapy testing
As of a couple months ago when i got sick of this conversation, and stopped studying it, there was not such high quality test of hcq+ therapy as prophylaxis underway. That was a shame
if anybody is aware that one has been initiated, post the info and let’s see
Science is ‘not’ a matter of opinion.
Someone’s opinion of what science is telling them is still an opinion. As a medicine for the prevention of malaria, the CDC states Hydroxychloroquine can be prescribed to adults and children of all ages. It can also be safely taken by pregnant women and nursing mothers. 70 years of science on HCQ and millions of doses prescribed prove the drug safe for humans. My opinion is that all drugs proven safe for human consumption should be available as treatment option, as agreed between the patient and their doctor.
Do you have a problem with anyone wanting to protect their right to choose an available medication that is proven safe for humans?
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Banning-the-Supernatural%3A-Why-Historians-Must-Not-Carroll/b411187684d4b40f1399e8ba388979c8c2fe2ed9
Who knows, thins may happen. Jesus told His disciples before the crucifixion that in the last days, the world would deny Him while proclaiming His name. One day, He is going to step in but it won’t be causing computers to crash.
Hey Zeus! Full of juice! Don’t let your meat loaf!
Rock Hill Patriot – the FDA has bent the knee and approved HCQ for off license use.
A few days ago a Yale University epidemiologist wrote an article in Newsweek citing a total of twelve studies he analyzed that support the Hydroxychloroquie plus azithromycin plus zinc remedy. The Yale epidemiologist implies tens of thousands of people have died needlessly because the media and Democrats chose to politicize hydroxychloroquine to try to hurt Trump politically.
https://www.newsweek.com/key-defeating-covid-19-already-exists-we-need-start-using-it-opinion-1519535
The cited article and argument by assertion that Dr. Risch made is garbage; this article explains why
https://respectfulinsolence.com/2020/07/29/hydroxychloroquine-the-black-knight-of-treatments-for-covid-19/
Agreed with your rational thesis, Professor. Hey, i know, put it up for discussion on the Turley blog and let the rationality replicate! Lol.
India’s population is 1.36 billion. Currently they have 34,600 deaths from covid 19 or about the same as the state of NewYork.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-india-hydroxychloroquine-virus.html
Or if that is too unpalatable, the obesity rate that leads to hypertension, high blood pressure and diabetes in India is 6.5%. The US obesity rate for only 330 million is 36.6%. Democratic governors want to keep gyms closed. Why is that?
“ Democratic governors want to keep gyms closed. Why is that?”
Because you can’t lose fat fast enough to prevent risk of complications if infected and it’s a bad idea to be in a room full of sweaty individuals that may be infected. You would think that is just plain common sense.
Micronutrient deficiencies, including zinc, are prevalent in the obese and those with type II diabetes–gyms alone won’t fix that.
“Zn deficiency is associated with obesity and comorbid conditions that include insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. ”
The Journal of Nutrition Biochemical, Molecular, and Genetic Mechanisms. May 2013. “Zinc Deficiency Augments Leptin Production and Exacerbates Macrophage Infiltration into Adipose Tissue in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet” Ming-Jie Liu, et al.
This is what i’ve been saying – we are seeing our general state of being unhealthy en masse to begin with in all of this. There is very seldom a good reason to be obese or have type II diabetes other than the fact that a person simply won’t take care of themselves. It is telling that the virus is virtually harmless to children that have not yet formed the bad habits leading to the bad conditions that the most afflicted suffer from.
India has also implemented programs of prophylaxis using hcq+ zinc and zpac
In the rush to censor and condemn, honest discussion is avoided. Some of those doctors recommended use of HCQ as a prophylactic, taking 200 mg HCQ twice weekly with daily zinc. The HCQ concentrates in the lungs and allegedly prevents the virus from entering, while the zinc interferes with the viral replication. If this is true, it is a major discovery, which would permit people to go back to work with fewer concerns. I have not seen any discussion of this thesis. Please look into it!
Les, what those doctors were engaging in was not honest discussion. That’s the problem. Invoking a higher power and ranting about “demon semen”. Doesn’t lend any credibility to their claims.
“Allegedly” is not an acceptable reason to take their recommendations seriously, especially when their claims include irrational ranting.
“ The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that hydroxychloroquine did not improve outcomes for the 667 COVID-19 patients participating in a randomized trial at 55 Brazilian hospitals.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/policy/healthcare/508782-new-study-finds-hydroxychloroquine-ineffective-at-treating-covid-19%3famp
To continue to promote this is not only unproductive, it’s a waste of time and resources.
Zinc needs to be included in the treatment.
There has been discussion on this blog over the months. I’m sure other people are discussing it elsewhere.
Zinc down regulates ACE2, which is otherwise the virus’ means of entry. Hydroxychloroquine is a zinc ionophore, which means it helps zinc enter cells more readily.
oh, we have explained it, and the lying Democrats inside the medical establishment have suppressed it. the Lancet published a bogus study supposedly disproving use of hcq as a prophylactic and then had to retract it. Just one example of the politicized medicine crisis we are in, which, if you said that to Democrat, they would say YES! Trump. And then not listen once you explained how badly they had all been lying about hcq+ zinc and zpac prophylaxis.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/04/lancet-retracts-major-covid-19-paper-that-raised-safety-concerns-about-malaria-drugs/
Paul– Perhaps when politicians hold a news conference to criticize a doctor’s treatment of the Corona virus, they should refer to it as “the Scottish Play”?
honestlawyer – I like to refer to it as the CCP Virus. Let’s put the blame where it belongs.
The Spanish Flu, 1918.
The Hong Kong Flu, 1969.
The China Flu, 2020*…alternatively, the Wuhan Flu, 2020*.
COVID-19* and coronavirus are politically correct prevarication; proposed and approved by the CCP.
_______________________________________________________________________________
* Who knew in 2019?
AND don’t forget the Y2K scared. Maybe some of you will remember.
Censoring her clearly false claims is justified. They are bad enough that they are convincing the president himself that this is true. Not only is this dangerous it makes it harder to convince the more gullible supporters of trump that this crap is true. Free speech has its limits and Facebook and YouTube have justification for pulling this kind of nonsense.
Turley says he fails to understand trump’s obsession because Turley can’t recognize a dangerous idiot is president. He willfully denies that it is entirely possible yet every day it’s proven to be true. The fact that trump is buying into this only points out just how weak minded he is.
“Censoring her clearly false claims is justified.”
*****
In every Progressive a totalitarian thug is raging to get loose.
Lost in the controversy is the contention that the drug may be useful as a prophylactic. Some of those doctors recommended taking a low dose of hydroxychloroquinone twice a week with a daily zinc dose to prevent getting COVID. The HCQ concentrates in the lungs and prevents the virus from entering and the zinc interferes with viral replication. If this is true, it is a major discovery. Please look into this.
The president himself stopped taking it a while back. Even when he is surrounded by infected politicians and aides. Surely he is back on it, no?
Les, the latest studies on this have already pointed out this anti malaria drug is not effective.
I agree that after the virus is established in the lungs, the drug is not effective. Show me the studies that it does not work as a prophylactic.
Les, who has the burden of proof here? No med should be administered until it has been proven safe and effective.
And yet leftists love ‘natural’ remedies with no double blind studies and no quality control.
Hydroxychloroqine has been in use by millions over decades and is well known. It does not increase risk and evidence is piling up that it is effective when administered early. I would take it.
Les,
“A Randomized Trial of Hydroxychloroquine as Postexposure Prophylaxis for Covid-19”
“ We enrolled 821 asymptomatic participants. Overall, 87.6% of the participants (719 of 821) reported a high-risk exposure to a confirmed Covid-19 contact. The incidence of new illness compatible with Covid-19 did not differ significantly between participants receiving hydroxychloroquine (49 of 414 [11.8%]) and those receiving placebo (58 of 407 [14.3%]); the absolute difference was −2.4 percentage points (95% confidence interval, −7.0 to 2.2; P=0.35). Side effects were more common with hydroxychloroquine than with placebo (40.1% vs. 16.8%), but no serious adverse reactions were reported.”
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2016638
They did not include zinc with the zinc ionophore hydroxychloroquine.
You can get all the zinc you want at your local GNC store.
Svelaz– Surely you know that when you are in a study you are not supposed to go to a store and buy your own stuff to add to the mix. Your position is exposed as political rather than medical.
Because they did not include zinc with the HCQ treatment.
To be a successful snake oil salesperson you need a crisis, a public that can be duped, and a hero who is ‘the only one who can fix this.’ If there is no crisis, then you create one by lies, exaggerations, and above all blame. Then, after getting the attention of the dupes, you reveal the solution. The primary force of all of this BS is to never admit fault, weakness, or correction. This explains Trump to a T. Trump created a crisis, blamed the ‘other side’, and presented himself as the ‘only one who can fix this’. The dupes fell for it and all that has come along since 2016. HydroWTF, is simply a point that Trump must keep touching upon in refusing to admit that he was wrong. Trump is a gambler. He is gambling that some data will appear that will bolster his rants. He has in his back pocket the ability to obfuscate the issue into another lie, “I knew it was a pandemic all along.” This latest idiot doctor is another one of his go to hacks that he can use. That anyone actually listens to this disgrace, Trump, is the real virus America faces.
“To be a successful snake oil salesperson you need a crisis, a public that can be duped, and a hero who is ‘the only one who can fix this.’”
Perfect description of claims of systematic racism and BLM.
Ellen is RACISSSS
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/896253475/the-ellen-degeneres-show-is-under-internal-investigation
WTF are you smoking? The whole world knows the virus started in China. What, exactly, could Trump – or anyone else – have done to prevent it spreading to the US. We are definitely in crisis but Trump didn’t create it, Democrats did by fighting every move he makes.
The CDC today said the use of it should be between the Doctor and patient. Seems to be the only sensible course of action. The drug seems to have helped some, not effective in many others.
Get the government out of it and let the doctor who knows the patient’s condition better than any government individual or agency make the call. Not sure why that is even controversial.
It’s controversial nature is rooted in the need for control and a unremitting hatred for all things Orange. What a patient and a doctor, working together, determines to be the best course of action is utterly and decidedly no one else’s business: including commentators on TV, random people in the Internet, bureaucratic cogs-in-the-wheels, actors, athletes, or the lady you met in the grocery store.
There is certain elements of our society who are convinced that all people are inherently helpless, hapless, and hopeless, and therefore *require* the oversight and management of their lives to be subjugated to the State. We are not capable of: determining how much water a toilet should use when flushed; what type of light bulb works best in our homes; deciding what to eat, absent nutrition labels; whether time is saved by resetting clocks; and a whole host of other day-to-day decisions. Yes, a society does need rules and regulations to function on an orderly manner. However, this society was founded on the premise that there should be only the minimum number of rules and regulations necessary to achieve such order. This is abominable to the folks who want an all-controlling government: who wants the government to countermand any doctor’s orders which lacks an affirmative approval. That abomination coupled with the Bad Orange Man saying HCQ “might” work and “could be” effective have driven them utterly from derangement to pure, maniacal lunacy.
It is controversial only insofar as it intrudes on the leftist’s absurdity.
Ugh: “There are certain elements…” not “There is…”
Even though I’s from Kentucky, I still knowd how to talk gooder than that. I done always got passing grades on grammar. If i’s a-gonna be a double-naught spy, imma haveta’ remember how to talk more better.
Well said.
Very good post! The following is essentially what Kant said to describe those unenlightened among us in his essay What is enlightenment?
There is certain elements of our society who are convinced that all people are inherently helpless, hapless, and hopeless, and therefore *require* the oversight and management of their lives to be subjugated to the State.
Perhaps we should leave the practice of medicine to MDs and not to politicians and journalists.
And attorneys!
Jonathan, the FDA has bowed to the power of her curses. HQC is back. They don’t want their computers going down.
Did Zuckerberg give his permission?
Cindy Hall – I was surprised as well, evidently Zuch the Cuck does not rule the FDA.