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riversedge

(69,724 posts)
Fri Mar 27, 2020, 06:41 PM Mar 2020

Trump's not a doctor. He's only playing one on TV.

Trump needs to shut his blabbering trap when it comes to medications for this horrible virus.





Trump’s not a doctor. He’s only playing one on TV.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/23/trumps-not-doctor-hes-only-playing-one-tv/?utm_campaign=wp_opinions&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter


By Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Vinay Prasad March 23, 2020 at 3:34 p.m. CDT

Ezekiel J. Emanuel is the chairman of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, a member of Joe Biden’s public health advisory committee and the author of the forthcoming book “Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care?” Vinay Prasad is associate professor of medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University and author of “Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer.”



President Trump has been promoting chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, as “a game changer” in combating the coronavirus, perhaps in combination with the antibiotic Azithromycin. “As the expression goes, ‘What do we have to lose?’ ” Trump asked during Saturday’s media briefing. The answer is: a lot. Experience teaches that promoting untested drugs in this way is irresponsible patient care, sloppy science and dangerous public policy.

It is tempting to ask, as Trump suggests, whether the rigors of scientific inquiry are too demanding in the midst of a pandemic, a luxury of proof the country can’t afford. But laboratory studies and anecdotal treatment of individuals are notoriously unreliable at judging what truly saves lives. Indeed, just last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, we learned that one suggested combination that worked against SARS — lopinavir-ritonavir — does not help treat, much less cure coronavirus.

For patients infected with the coronavirus, particularly those whose condition is worsening, it is a natural human reaction to try something, anything. Unfortunately, this impulse is misguided. Indeed, these “what do we have to lose?” treatments can be very dangerous to individuals and the public health showing that we do have something to lose. Cancer, the oldest malady, offers useful guidance on covid-19, the youngest disease on Earth.................


.........................


When it comes to covid-19, physicians, out of desperation, are giving several drugs to patients all at once. Some people recover, and some do not, but the consequence of this kitchen-sink approach is that we don’t know which, if any, of these drugs help or hurt. As immunologist Anthony S. Fauci explained, “at the end of the day, if you’ve given a lot of stuff to people. . . . You don’t know what works. . . . It may have satisfied your humanitarian instincts of giving something to someone when there’s no proven therapy, but you’ve in some respects done a disservice.”..........................................

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Trump's not a doctor. He's only playing one on TV. (Original Post) riversedge Mar 2020 OP
Well he's also playing President mikalcharles Mar 2020 #1
But he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night? Canoe52 Mar 2020 #2
Also tacking a crack at Human. Never gets there though. LakeArenal Mar 2020 #3
Meanwhile a Trump aligned group is pushing docs to "end the red tape" for the dangerous drug Tweedy Mar 2020 #4

Tweedy

(628 posts)
4. Meanwhile a Trump aligned group is pushing docs to "end the red tape" for the dangerous drug
Fri Mar 27, 2020, 07:09 PM
Mar 2020

So, this president and his backers want to turn the clock back to buyer beware (caveat emptor) and this time with pharmaceuticals.

None of these people is fit to lead a dog out of a cardboard box, much less set policy for the United States.

From the first link--

"Thomas McGarity, a professor of administrative law at the University of Texas, said the text message campaign was part of a longstanding effort by some on the political right to neuter the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and put more decision-making power into the hands of patients and doctors that drug companies could pitch to directly.

McGarity said their philosophy was, "the market can handle this - we don't need an FDA to be getting in the way."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/u-group-bombards-doctors-coronavirus-191657099.html

And

https://www.propublica.org/article/republican-billionaire-group-pushes-unproven-covid-19-treatment-trump-promoted

Guess if the drug companies cannot get us hooked on opioids following root canal surgery, or something equally not requiring an opiod prescription, they thought they would stop our hearts and call it a coronavirus treatment. One supposes these folks just cannot be too rich or too sadistic.

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