Darren wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 12:54 am
"The HCQ story begins in 1638 when the wife of the Viceroy of Peru, Countess Cinchona, acquired malaria while living in the New World. Rather than getting the “approved” therapy, blood-letting, she was treated by an Incan herbalist with the bark of a tree (eventually, named for the countess-Cinchona Tree). Her response was dramatic; when the Viceroy returned to Spain, he brought with him large supplies of the powder for general use, which at the time was controlled by the Church and was thus called “Jesuit’s Powder”."
What I hear you saying is that quinine cures malaria — or at least shows some effectiveness against it — so why not try it, or some variant of it, like hydroxycholorquine, against COVID-19?
I think Trump was binge-watching M*A*S*H and saw the episode "The Red/White Blues":
Klinger is excitedly packing for several days of R&R in Tokyo when Colonel Potter comes in and tells Klinger that I-Corps has several outdated reports from the 4077th, because the paper forms changed some time ago and Klinger didn't notice. Potter cancels Klinger's leave as punishment for not keeping up with the daily reports.
Later, Col. Potter undergoes a routine physical — the last one he'll need to have while on active duty — and the results aren't good. His blood pressure is way above the norm, and he runs the risk of being pulled from command and stuck behind a desk. Potter begs Hawkeye to fudge the numbers, but he refuses. Potter is adamant, and asks Hawkeye for two weeks to get his numbers down before the report has to be sent in to HQ. Hawkeye agrees, but reminds him he's going to have to cut down on his drinking, his salt, his cigars, and his penchant for getting angry due to the pressures of being in command. Hawkeye also promises to keep Potter's condition a secret, but almost immediately he spills the news to everyone, who start treating Potter with kid gloves, which of course drives him (Potter) nuts.
Back in his office, Potter flies off the handle when he thinks Klinger ordered the wrong medicine needed to preemptively deal with the malaria problem —- they're stuck with primaquine instead of chloroquine. After blowing his stack, Hawkeye finds a letter enclosed that HQ was out of chloroquine, so they sent the other, less effective drug instead. Primaquine is just a suppressant, not the cure ... plus, it also has negative side effects for blacks (in keeping with the culture and language of the '50s, the word 'negroes' was used). But it will have to do. Potter, chastened, apologizes to Klinger.
Later, Hawkeye is back in Klinger's office, and he's shocked to see the mountain of paperwork that covers the office. He can't understand why Klinger isn't getting the work done, but Klinger insists its not out of laziness, its because he feels so worn out and tired. Hawkeye isn't hearing any of it, and issues a direct order to Klinger to get all the work done before Potter comes back and sees the mess.
The doctors try to stall Potter in the officers' club, but without having any booze. When Winchester is challenged over ordering a cognac, he references the temperance movement and Carrie Nation, who was arrested some 30 times between 1900 and 1910 for smashing saloons and their inventory. They all settle for lemonade. While the gang occupies the Colonel, Margaret checks up on Klinger. The office is in even worse shape, and Klinger claims that he feels exhausted, along with severe back pain. Margaret is furious, and when choppers arrive, she orders him to get up and help out.
While in pre-op, Margaret sees that one of the orderlies, Pvt. Goldman, is resting on a bench. He complains of feeling tired with a bad back, and Margaret promises to have one of the doctors check him out. Klinger, seeing this, gets mad, accusing Margaret of believing Goldman but not him, even though they have the same symptoms. Margaret apologizes and tells him to rest, too.
After the OR session, Hawkeye and B.J. run blood tests and discover that, whatever it is that is affecting Klinger and Goldman, it's the same thing — they just don't know what it is. B.J. points out that the only potential new factor is the primaquine medicine, suggesting that both men might have been rendered anemic by the drug. While finishing up Klinger's paperwork, they come up with a plan to take Klinger and Goldman off the pills entirely. The removal of primaquine has the desired effect, and Klinger returns to his normal self.
A few days later, the colonel gets another examination, and this time Potter passes with a few points to spare. Overjoyed, he takes a drink and lights a cigar in celebration. Some time after that, Klinger returns from R & R — having had a miserable time due to several accidents in Tokyo. Then Goldman shows up from R & R also having had several accidents! An on-screen text crawl just before the end credits reveal that primaquine was later found to also cause negative reactions, a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, in people of Mediterranean heritage (like Klinger and Goldman).
and probably thought, "Primiquine, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine — what's the big difference?" and immediately started tweeting and running his mouth.
But once the Trumpanzees got wind of it, it was suddenly this fantastic new miracle cure that was for some reason being suppressed ... and from there on, anything the Snake-Oil Salesman in Chief suggested — from letting the disease run its course so the populace can develop 'herd immunity'
(too bad about those few thousand, later upgraded to hundreds of thousands, who might die, but hey; they should be willing to give their lives for their children, right?) to exposure to summer heat, bright lights, and injecting or somehow introducing disinfectant into the body — all suddenly became miracle cures and treatments; better even than bathing ones' self in the healing waters of Lourdes.
And need I remind you that malaria — against which quinine IS effective — is caused by single-celled microorganisms (bacteria) of the Plasmodium group, while COVID-19 is caused by a virus?
I suppose that after his off-the-wall suggestion that we use atomic weapons to weaken or alter the course of hurricanes, we should at least be grateful that he didn't suggest setting off a series of neutron bombs to irradiate the virus and kill it that way.
-"BB"-
