Trump's Dangerous Messaging About a Possible Coronavirus Treatment
The malaria drug chloroquine was developed from quinine, an alkaloid found in the bark of the cinchona tree, which grows in the tropical highlands of South America. The Incas passed the bark cure to Jesuit priests, who transported it to Europe in the mid-sixteen-hundreds. The National Institutes of Health calls quinine “the most serendipitous medical discovery of the 17th century,” but its side effects—diarrhea, vomiting, partial deafness and blindness—could be devastating. A less toxic derivative of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, was developed in the nineteen-forties. Doctors and pharmacists call it HCQ.
Against malaria, the drugs, which are taken as pills, essentially defend red blood cells against a parasite that is transmitted by mosquito bite. Lately, some doctors have been trying it against the novel coronavirus, which causes covid-19. Attention to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine—and to a third drug, the antibiotic azithromycin, a common brand name of which is Zithromax Z-Pak—intensified in mid-March, after researchers at Aix-Marseille University, in France, released a preliminary study saying that, in a clinical trial, the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin had quickly reduced the amount of the virus in covid-19 patients.
On March 18th, on Fox News, Tucker Carlson opened a three-minute segment about the study by saying, of the United States, “This is a country of science.” He then introduced a lawyer, Gregory Rigano, whom he identified as an adviser to Stanford University’s medical school. Rigano had self-published a white paper about chloroquine, on Google Docs; his connection to the French research was otherwise unclear. He was appearing remotely, wearing a suit and sitting in front of a cold fireplace. When Carlson asked him why he thought the study was important, Rigano responded, “The President has the authority to authorize the use of hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus immediately. He has cut more red tape at the F.D.A. than any other President in history.”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trumps-dangerous-messaging-about-a-possible-coronavirus-treatment
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