Dear Kyle Bass
Chloroquine Poisoning
Please pay attention to this report by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security regarding Chloroquine Poisoning
The drug chloroquine, currently being investigated as a potential treatment for COVID-19, resulted in multiple overdose deaths in Nigeria. In the short period after the drug was touted by US President Donald Trump, prices reportedly skyrocketed by more than 400% in some locations due to increased demand, despite a dearth of evidence indicating that it is effective against COVID-19.
Over the weekend, Nigeria reported several deaths due to “chloroquine poisoning.” In response, Lagos State Health Commissioner Akin Abayoi published a video via the Lagos State Ministry of Health Twitter account warning against the unlicensed use of chloroquine and emphasizing that it has yet to demonstrate efficacy against COVID-19, and Nigeria’s Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire echoed the need for additional data in a statement posted on the Nigeria Ministry of Health website.
I believe we need a review of the definition of “Works”
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Hey Mish, for many years I have looked forward to reading your latest insights on the financial side of things. I ran across this headline looking for some data on Dr Zelenko and did a double take when I saw your name tied to it! Have you gone full Drudge and sold out to some left wing rag? Seriously, citing some rumor from Nigeria!!! Did you fall for an email scam while you were reading that report? Did you bother to find out how many pounds of the drug the deaths came from or at least confirm it was not from fish fertilizer?
Too bad, I had so much respect for you and now you are just another shill for something…
Now I will have a much stronger sense of skepticism reading ANYTHING you write since you apparently don’t vet any info and write from rumors as well was knowledge…
my source for chloroquinine and hydrochloroquinine are sold out. why , because the anecdotal evidence is mounting in spite of dumbass vague chastizing.
Chloroquine studies showning Covid19 effectiveness:
Great content!
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I took Chloroquine the first time I went to Asia to protect against malaria. I just listened to a doctor on French television and he said millions of dose should be manufactured we don’t have time to wait to see if it really works since time is critical, and the drug has few side effects.
Of course if people start to self-medicate and take high dose they may die. This is true for any medicines. Hell, you can even die of a water overdose…
Great stuff:
Here is the letter from NY Dr.
Dr. Vladimir (Zev) Zelenko
Board Certified Family Practitioner
501 Rt 208, Monroe, NY 10950
845-238-0000
March 23, 2020
To all medical professionals around the world:
My name is Dr. Zev Zelenko and I practice medicine in Monroe, NY. For the last 16 years, I
have cared for approximately 75% of the adult population of Kiryas Joel, which is a very close
knit community of approximately 35,000 people in which the infection spread rapidly and
unchecked prior to the imposition of social distancing.
As of today my team has tested approximately 200 people from this community for Covid-19,
and 65% of the results have been positive. If extrapolated to the entire community, that means
more than 20,000 people are infected at the present time. Of this group, I estimate that there are
1500 patients who are in the high-risk category (i.e. >60, immunocompromised, comorbidities,
etc).
Given the urgency of the situation, I developed the following treatment protocol in the
pre-hospital setting and have seen only positive results:
their circumstances change and they fall into category 1 or 2).
My out-patient treatment regimen is as follows:
The rationale for my treatment plan is as follows. I combined the data available from China and
South Korea with the recent study published from France (sites available on request). We know
that hydroxychloroquine helps Zinc enter the cell. We know that Zinc slows viral replication
within the cell. Regarding the use of azithromycin, I postulate it prevents secondary bacterial
infections. These three drugs are well known and usually well tolerated, hence the risk to the
patient is low.
Since last Thursday, my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another
150 patients in other areas of New York with the above regimen.
Of this group and the information provided to me by affiliated medical teams, we have had
ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations. In addition, I have not heard of
any negative side effects other than approximately 10% of patients with temporary nausea and
diarrhea.
In sum, my urgent recommendation is to initiate treatment in the outpatient setting as soon as
possible in accordance with the above. Based on my direct experience, it prevents acute
respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), prevents the need for hospitalization and saves lives.
With much respect,
Dr. Zev Zelenko
cc: President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff
Link to where you found it?
GERMANY CLAIM THEIR SUCCESS WITH LOW DEATH RATE, LOW CRITICAL CASES NUMBER IS A RESULT OF TWO FACTORS:
A. Does it work. Early to conclude so but if figures released are true it seems that “something” far less severe happen to the hospitalized patients in Germany.
B. If Chloroquine has such an impressive effect could the containment measures be lifted? Not at this point as people keep infecting like in any other country and at the same exponential speed as Chloroquine is only prescribed when infected people condition require an hospitalization. So without containment medical systems will be overwhelmed anyway whether Chloriquine decrease the severity of body damages or not in case of people hospitalized only.
C. Should chloroquine have a PREVENTIVE effect like it did for malaria (I used to be on Chloroquine daily intake for months when I used to travel to Malaria infested countries in the 80 ties)
If it works so outstandingly as it is claimed in case of Covid-19 infection and reduction of hospital critical cases, yes. But that is impossible to prove in the present state of the pandemic.
In the meantime, I repeat that it is logical that everybody must use a mask like they do in Asia (even do it yourself) now that we know that asymptomatic people (who dont know they have the infection and transmit it to everybody) ALSO infect other peoples.
What is your reference for the German practice of treating patients this way?
Good post. However, I shall be taking it as a once-a-week prophylactic for a while. Extremely low risk, potential high reward. Ideally everyone could do that once the tests are done and then the infection rate would plummet and that will be that.
Dude – see NY post article – these are people who are going to get hurt because they misunderstand: https://nypost.com/2020/03/23/man-dies-after-self-medicating-with-chloroquine-phosphate-to-treat-coronavirus/
The way to improve this is through education, not secrecy — especially when there are so many doomsayers around.
“An Arizona man has died and his wife is in critical condition after they ingested chloroquine phosphate – an aquarium cleaning product similar to drugs that have been named by President Trump as potential treatments for coronavirus infection”.
NOTE: Chloroquine sulfate is the prescription drug. https://news.trust.org/item/20200323225613-cmq3v
Is it possible that Dr. Fauci has connections to Glaxo? Chloroquine costs pennies per pill, which might explain lots of things.
News flash: 100% of people that die from an overdose on chloroquine did not die from COVID-19.
Man taking Aquarium cleaner article:
Man takes too much Aquarium Cleaner (chlorquonine phosphate), dies shortly thereafter, wife blames Trump.
Tylenol (Acetominophen) will kill you with a smaller “excessive dose” by destroying your liver, especially if you also consume alchohol (someone should also check fructose as it is metabilized).
Meanwhile US poison control centers had to issue a warning not to drink or inhale bleach.
Daily maximum dose of Chloquine is 1,000 mg( 1 grams)/day.
2,000 mg/day is toxic and can kill the patient.
An overdose of tylenol can kill you too. Overdosing is generally not recommended for most drugs and has bad side effects including death.
I’m not touting Hydroxychloroquine for Covid 19; however, the man who was rolling on 4 squares, how much FDA approved evidence did he need when he saw the man roll by on the wheel?
You are comparing basic mechanics to how each human might react to a particular medication that was created using advanced chemistry. This is way beyond apples and oranges.
“Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS Coronavirus infection and spread”- non.nih. Chloroquine is effective in preventing the spread of SARS CoV in cell culture. Favorable inhibition of virus spread was observed when the cells were either treated with chloroquine prior to or after SARS CoV infection. In addition, the indirect immunofluorescence assay described herein represents a simple and rapid method for screening SARS-CoV antiviral compounds.“
nlm.nih.gov – 2005-
If it worked for SARS CoV, then it’s not much of a leap that it might work for SARS CoV-2.
There real question is why wasn’t this drug tested and approved for use against SARS back in 2005? Trials showed it worked. If it had been approved, we could have tried this on CoV-2 when it first appeared, instead of just talking about trials 60 days after CoV-2 arrived.
Why do you think all the tension with Dr Fauci and Trump? Fauci has been part of NIH for 30 years, and they had chloroquine info for 15 years, but did nothing with it.
All Sars interest, and research funding, ended when Sars ended, but we’ve burnt $180 billion since on our AGW boondoggle.
We’ll be sitting in precisely the same predicament when Sars CoV-3 hits.
Corruption.
We just hesitate to believe it since it undermines our natural sense of decency which assumes our leaders and government agents are decent.
Corruption is rampant.
So many 1st-time bots, err, I mean commenters today.
I hope all Trump cultists drink the chloroquine in ample quantities.
Watch the commercials for FDA approved drugs. Many have potential serious side effects, some including death.
Actor Daniel Dae Kim took chloroquine as part of his treatment and he called it a “secret weapon” in his treatment. A French doctor gave it to some 100 patients and none died. All recovered within several days.
“Yes, this is the drug that the President mentioned the other day,” Kim said in Saturday’s video. “It is also the drug that Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned us about. He said that evidence that the drug was promising is anecdotal, and that is correct. It means it wasn’t studied, and it’s only based on personal accounts. Well, add my name to those personal accounts, because I am feeling better.”
Overdose deaths in Nigeria. The key word is overdose. The French patients were not overdosed.
Zinc is a good for dealing with colds. Overdosing zinc is not a good thing for the body. The key is proper usage.
Bull. The Chinese have published the results of controlled clinical trails on Feb 19, after earlier publications about in vitro results on Feb 4. Chloroquine, a zinc ionophore, essentially gets zinc ions inside the cell wall inhibiting the manufacture of a protein that plays a role in copying the RNA of the virus. Completely ignoring what the Chinese have learned and published (in English in international scientific journals) is just more evidence of the superiority invulnerability attitude that has crippled adequate response so far.
Why do you say “bull”? Nothing you wrote contradicts what@RonJ wrote…maybe you misread him?
I believe that along with rigid thinking there are also bad actors in play in some of the main institutions, including WHO and FDA/CDC. Some people want things to go badly.
Mish has TDS. You won’t be able to talk sense into him at this point. He’s too far gone.
The issue here is the risk//benefit ratio. In circumstances of a potentially fatal disease without an established effective therapy, the passive default position is to treat symptoms and complications and probably watch patients die. In this instance you have a cheap, relatively safe (especially hydroxychoroquine) well known medication with experimentally proved credible mode of actions, positive anecdotal case reports and an epublication of a small double blind placebo controlled trial from France. It is a no brainer to offer this therapy to seriously ill patients. I am very disturbed by my colleagues who have become so brainwashed and complacent from expert protocols and guidelines that they have lost the ability to think for themselves and would prefer to watch people die than try something that “may work”. It’s relatively nontoxic. It’s not expensive And it doesn’t prevent or preclude use of other effective medications (if they existed) as alternative cancer therapies might. I would also add for clarification that the FDA has no authority in this. It regulates what pharmaceutical companies can claim in advertising and controls access to new experimental drugs used on a compassionate basis. It has NO AUTHORITY over physician use of established medications. Physicians can use any med for any reason though it obviously has to have a good rationale or you have medicolegal risks. In fact it should be noted, the FDA ENCOURAGES the novel use of approved medications as a way to expand the envelope of knowledge. I find the resistance to using this medication by my colleagues illogical and disheartening.
S Leicht, M.D. FACP,FAAD
Thankyou
Many thanks, Dr. leicht, for raising a voice of common sense in the middle of a screeching catfight.
If I, or one of mine, came down with this thing, the first thing I’d ask the attending physician, upon which all may depend, would be:
“What can you tell me about the actual results to date for the various antivirals being tried on this thing, specifically the use of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in combination?”
If I got a blank stare or motor mouth shuffle for an answer, I’d leave and get another doctor.
Bravo and well said Doctor!
I think much of the problem comes from the hyper-commercialisation of the medical industry in which too many doctors end up becoming front-line marketing reps and the regulatory agencies tend too far towards protecting corporate interests over strictly medical/health related ones.
That is interesting about the FDA mission. I believe they have been blocking thousands of small labs from doing tests and wonder if that is really their baillywick as well. The entire country – but esp. the health industry – is over-regulated and thus overly rigid (and corrupted) thereby. Maybe the virus will provoke long-needed clearing of its systemic nasal passages where the virus of bureaucracy and over-commercialisations have spawned dangerously large colonies!
Notice it’s an executive that gets the drug. It’s not approved for anyone else yet and one of these companies just sent over 100k doses FREE overseas.No idea if it works or not but ive read promising things on it. The side effects are NOT promising though but if you’re going to die anyway……..
Doctors can prescribe it to anyone off-label, you don’t have to get special approval.
Mish, I thought you were a Libertarian that championed personal responsibility and lack of government interventions.
Looks like you’re rooting for your Gold positions to moon. It’s not TDS. it’s a calculated disinformation campaign to get people into gold.
TDS = Laughing at the idiot toddler the other idiot toddlers managed to get elected president.
I don’t think Mish, much as he’s popular, has any real stock market moving power, though the way the SEC is these days, if ever there was a case against him somehow I’m sure the SEC would say he does… sad but true the USA is over-regulated.
What a load of fear-mongering rubbish from Establishment John Hopkins.
Why not read the report from France, Mish, peer-reviewed.
Why not cite the others from China and Australia who also recently treated Corona with it?
In terms of bad side effects, it is one of the safest on the market having been used for 70 years.
All drugs can be abused. All of them can have bad side effects.
You just want it not to work out because your slant is to find the negative, point out flaws. What if it is a simple thing that works, Mish, and they were trying to hide it.
Why do we all need flu shots if this stuff works.
I had really bad flu and bought it just before Trump’s speech (having read the news about the French study the day before). In one day the flu just vanished. Probably I didn’t have corona but still: why don’t we all know about it already?
Because of experts like Fauci and John Hopkins who are all shills for Big Pharma, that’s why.
We are being played. This is a Big Lie in operation. The virus is real, but the narrative around it is blown out of all proportion. I bet you less people died in Wuhan from this thing than usually die in car crashes during the same period.
Could not agree more. The economy is being destroyed for what. 0.8 per cent of people who died in Italy did not have other underlying pre existent health issues. That means under 50 from 63,000 plus known cases have dies and did not have any known underlying health issue. Then add on all the people out there who have contracted this disease and are asymptomatic which could be up to 90 per cent. This shows how much this has been blown out of proportion including surprisingly by this site. The real question is why are they destroying the economy?
Debt. IMHO it’s a stealth financial crisis.
actually the real question is why you think you’ll survive Covid-19 with no long term health issues, when even pro athletes are hospitalized with serious conditions. Remember, it’s a 2-3% death rate, not the typical 0.1% flu rate.
What pro athletes are hospitalised. I have not seen any athlete whether in UK or Australia hospitalised.Did you actually read my post about the death rate and about the asymptomatic undetected. Did you know the first casein Italy was in a small town in Vo. They tested the whole town and found from memory around 89 people with the virus. Virtually all were asymptomatic. Iceland has the most comprehensive testing of any nation by deCode genetics and they found the virus that it had reached 1 per cent of the population the vast majority had no symptoms. Where exactly are you getting 2-3 per cent death rate.
2-3% of serious cases die. Not the people who might get it and don’t have symptoms. Did you know even smallpox (and even rabies actually, though that’s speculative) are believed to spread wide but don’t kill? I live part of the year in the Philippines (I’m European but it’s nice there) and I got a rabies shot since rabid dogs are found there. A sensible precaution, and I did get scratched by wild animals. So why not stay at home for 14 days as a precaution to kill this disease? Do you really think that the US economy is so fragile that two weeks lockdown will kill it? It hasn’t killed China, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Spain, France and Greece, countries that have tried or trying quarantines. But I realize I may be speaking to some rather ignorant fellow Americans, ones that don’t believe in global warming (which even Greek redneck farmers believe in) nor evolution (id) nor pandemics (id). When the most popular book in the USA a while go was “Everything I learned in life, I learned by the First Grade”, that speaks volumes. Good luck! You might need it (I’m overseas now, quarantined, not a big deal).
What about the Diamond princess. What was the average age of the passengers on board.Must have been about 70. 713 cases confirmed. 8 deaths. 2-3 death rate is laughable. Average age of deceased in Italy through coronavirus is 81.
Long term health problems maybe? I don’t want to catch Covid-19 to maybe save 14 days of US GDP (which will come roaring back after the quarantine), do you? If you do, you’re more brave, or more foolhardy, than me.
Ray if you have nothing to back up what you preach then you will come across as a hysterical,misinformed sheep.
Where did you purchase just curious? Presume you aren’t in the US where everything has to go through over priced doctor visits.
Regards,
Cooter
Mexico. But the day after I bought it I couldn’t get any more, nor straight chloroquine (Aralen). I think it’s being reserved for hospitals now but information here is very patchy. There are online places like cheapscripts.com but whether they are bonafide or not I don’t know. I usually don’t take pharma stuff. But when I read that it is the #1 drug used by people with Lyme Disease – which have had for 20+ years – and given this corona is going around and Lymeys have compromised immune systems, I decided to give it a try. Was very surprised at how rapidly a flu – which had been building for about a week and getting nasty – just disappeared overnight.
I suspect now that the flu shot business is a racket and this stuff works, but of course am neither scientist or doctor.
In any case, this thing is very weird.
As to a longer quarantine period not knocking out US economy: I agree in theory but not in practice. The US is a politically toxic situation right now with so much endemic corruption boiling to the surface, no matter which side you are on or have TDS Type 1 or Type 2. The country cannot handle a long shut-down period. Politicians don’t behave; government departments are filled with saboteurs; the media is outrageously irresponsible and unfair; the financial system is corrupt beyond comprehension; and the ongoing war between globalists and nationalists being now furiously waged is largely invisible to the American (and other) people.
It’s a mess.
So now, the country can’t handle a long shutdown period.
(Which I suspect is EXACTLY why the virus is such a perfect asymmetric bio-weapon, and EXACTLY why you see the most lefty/globalist Governors rushing to shut down entirely. This is a war ongoing, but most of us are blissfully unaware of it, hunkered down trying to avoid an invisible enemy who can destroy us if we step outside.)
Excellent, thank you.
Small study with 100% recovery with chloroquine and another drug within 6 days: https://www.covidtrial.io/
No information on how serious the cases were, patient background, etc. Lots of missing data. Still, 100% in 6 days is 100% in 6 days.
There are claims chloroquine is also prophylactic, preventing people from getting covid. I wouldn’t use chloroquine for that. Too many side effects.
I have started drinking tonic water, though. Tiny doses of quinine (the natural compound chloroquine is modeled after) can’t possibly hurt. The small chance it will help is worth it given I like tonic water.
Most of the side effects are experienced by people with chronic conditions using it as daily medication and higher doses than when using as prophylactic (400 mg one day a week). Rheumatoid arthritis people take 500-1000 mg a day, sometimes for years. People with corona get high dose (about 2000 mg) first day, then 500-1000 mg for next 5 days, then that’s pretty much that. It’s very low risk taken that way unless you have an initial reaction.
This drug has been around for decades and is one of the most simple, benign ones out there. The fact is that Big Pharma didn’t want it used because there’s no money in it.
Gauging is at point of sale by immoral retailers. The solution is adequate supply. It will take a few weeks and then all this insanity should be over already.
Same here on the tonic water based on these stories, just got a box today of fancy Indian ‘fever-tree’ tonic water. Pretty good. And some stronger cinchona bark laid away too.
I like the tonic water cure, I might try that myself. Can’t hurt.
I may try the same, given that I like tonic water. I may need to get some gin to go with it, though. 😉
This post is ridiculous. You are starting to lose it man
Your cult demands compliance.
What cult? This is a garbage post. Mish usually has very insightful posts. This one sucked
The drug may actually work for some strange reason (something with hanging the PH of the cells), but its a “dangerous drug” because its easy to overdose. You know the story two Tylenol is good so four will be better (huge problems with liver). It looks like a promising drug but it needs serious investigation. The Montreal based Institute of Cardiology has begun trials of the drug (looking for 6,000 patients) to get a base line on whether this works! Still potentially good news
If I had a potentially fatal illness and there was a potential, but unapproved cure for it, I’d certainly try it. No organization containing the name “Johns Hopkins” would deter me.
News alert “overdosing on certain drugs can cause death”. Really. If i stick to the recommended dose will it likely kill me. What about the guy in California who was so close to death he said his goodbyes. He demanded they give him chloroquine and guess what, he didn
t die of an overdose and is now recovering in hospital. Wheres the balance in your post. Preliminary reports in China,South Korea and France show the drug is effective in treating patients to some degree. Hydroxychloroquine a similar drug is being tested (drug has lower toxicity). If you were on your deathbed wouldnt you want the choice. I know i would.Mish, I highly respect your column and recommend it often. I am appalled that you obviously are spouting off here without doing any research. There is more than “one case”. Please do a few more key strokes and find huge anecdotal evidence of efficacy. Please refer to WSJ of March 23rd. This is a highly proven drug that was discovered in 1934. Of course morons and children can poison themselves even with Tylenol. Clearly this is downplayed because of optics and politicism. Please Mish, don’t go down this road. You are losing my respect and will look hugely stupid when the truth finally comes out.
Mish has TDS. You won’t be able to talk sense into him at this point. He’s too far gone.
I agree. Mish was a must read for me daily until a few months ago. He has totally lost my respect.
I have 100 grams I purchased over a month ago, thanks for the heads up. More data… COVID-19
Chloroquine Is Not a Harmless Panacea for COVID-19
— There’s a real safety concern with malaria drug
Dan J. Vick MD, DHA, MBA, CPE March 23, 2020
A close up of a chloroquine tablet in a package
During a March 19 press conference, President Trump announced that chloroquine, a drug long used to treat malaria, was going to be made available for those stricken with COVID-19. This followed news of preliminary research, including a limited study in Australia, in which chloroquine showed promise in eradicating the coronavirus in some patients. Chinese research published in February suggested efficacy and safety of chloroquine in treating pneumonia associated with COVID-19. A subsequent Chinese study involving the use of both chloroquine and its molecular cousin, hydroxychloroquine, determined that hydroxychloroquine is the more potent of these two drugs in its inhibition of this novel coronavirus.
Controversy enveloped the announcement by the president, especially after he indicated that chloroquine has already been approved for this use by the FDA. The agency’s commissioner, Stephen Hahn, MD, quickly clarified that larger studies still need to be conducted to determine the safety and effectiveness of chloroquine for treating COVID-19. Much of the discussion that continued in the media throughout the day concerned whether the drug will truly prove effective and, if so, how long will it be until this medication gets the green light for patient use. There was also confusion as to which drug is under consideration since some reports, and the president himself, made mention of hydroxychloroquine as well. The distinction is important, as will be seen shortly.
While others are focusing on the drug effectiveness component in this debate, I am more concerned about the safety with regard to chloroquine. What I haven’t seen mentioned is the contraindication for use of the drug in people who have glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. For those who need a refresher from medical school, G6PD deficiency is an X-linked recessive genetic condition, and therefore almost always occurs in males. It is found predominantly in people of African or Mediterranean origin. As a result of mutations in the G6PD gene, the amount of G6PD is either reduced or its structure is significantly altered so that it cannot perform its usual enzymatic functions.
G6PD has two primary functions: it plays a role in carbohydrate processing and, important for this discussion, it helps protect cells from the harmful effects of free oxygen radicals. These reactive oxygen molecules are byproducts of normal cell function. G6PD is involved in a chemical reaction known as the pentose phosphate pathway and produces another molecule called NADPH. The latter has a direct role in ridding cells of the free oxygen radicals before they build up to toxic levels. This function is especially essential for red blood cells, which, unlike other cells in the body, lack additional NADPH-producing enzymes.
In the presence of a buildup of reactive oxygen species, red blood cells are prematurely destroyed, causing a condition called hemolytic anemia. This can result in jaundice, shortness of breath (from decreased oxygen carrying capacity of the remaining red blood cells), and tachycardia. In severe cases, it can cause acute kidney failure and death. However, many people with G6PD deficiency are asymptomatic and not aware that they have it until something triggers an episode of hemolytic anemia. Common triggers include bacterial or viral infections and treatment with certain drugs. One drug commonly associated with hemolytic anemia in G6PD deficiency is … chloroquine.
Should this be a concern in the present debate over treating COVID-19 patients? In my opinion, yes. G6PD deficiency is rather common; in fact, it is the second most common human enzyme defect, affecting some 400 million people worldwide. It affects 1 in 10 African-American males in the U.S. It is common enough that it was written into an episode of the long-running TV series MAS*H. In this episode, the character Corporal Klinger, who was of Mediterranean descent, became seriously ill after being given an anti-malarial drug. He was found to have hemolytic anemia and an association was made with the drug. The ending credits included a brief commentary on G6PD deficiency.
Given the challenges of knowing who may or may not have G6PD deficiency, it would seem prudent not to use chloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients who may be at risk for this genetic condition. The last thing they need is to have a serious respiratory disease compounded by hemolytic anemia, resulting in further loss of oxygenation.
Hydroxychloroquine, on the other hand, does not induce hemolytic anemia in people with G6PD deficiency despite the molecular similarity to chloroquine. It has shown effectiveness in inhibiting the pandemic coronavirus during in vitro testing. Perhaps this is the drug to which the president and Hahn were referring. Hydroxychloroquine is where the FDA should direct its testing efforts, and quickly, to determine whether this may be the silver bullet for treating COVID-19.
Dan J. Vick, MD, DHA, MBA, CPE, a pathologist and former hospital executive, is a member of the graduate teaching faculty in the Master of Health Administration Program, School of Health Sciences, in the Herbert H. & Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant.
Last Updated March 23, 2020
It wasn’t just ‘in vitro testing.’ There was a study last month with live subjects infected with corona virus and all of them recovered using HCQ + antibiotic, and all with HCQ only got much better. Also detailed reports from China and Australia. Fauci’s ‘anecdotal evidence’ is a disgraceful, disingenuous talking point, and if we had an adult government in the US he would have been fired already. No doubt he and his ilk would prefer that some fancy new super-expensive drug or vaccine comes on the market making the people he really works for in Big Pharma very, very rich.
Rather an extreme position, since guys like Fauci typically like to cite “gold standard” evidence in medicine rather than speculative ‘might work’ cures. Gold standard is a higher standard than one live study where people got better. Remember in medicine they Rx purple sugar pills, and when the patient takes one, they often recover (mind-body connection), it’s called placebo. Every competent pharmacy has these sugar pills in stock, with fancy names and packaging…from what I heard from a pharmacist.
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency Hydroxychloroquine may cause hemolytic anemia in G6PD-deficient patients, although this is unlikely when hydroxychloroquine is given in therapeutic doses. About 400 million people have the condition globally. It is particularly common in certain parts of Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Males are affected more often than females. In 2015 it is believed to have resulted in 33,000 deaths.
Side/adverse effects of hydroxychloroquine are usually dose-related. When hydroxychloroquine is used for the short-term treatment of malaria or other parasitic diseases, side/adverse effects are usually mild and reversible.
In the case of COVID, they are suggesting a 5 day regiment of 800/day for 2 days, and 400 mg/day for 3 days, and a zinc suppliment. Hydrochloroquine is only needed to break the 2 positive ions from zinc to allow the zinc to permeate cell walls. Once inside the cell, the zinc destroys the RNA replication process of corona virus. They know how it works with corona viruses, but they don’t know if it works specifically the same way with covid 19.
Excellent post. Thank you.
For all you believers–where are the manufacturers of these magic compounds? China? India? Spain?
Has anyone bothered to find this out yet?
As I understand, chloroquine is both easy to manufacture, and no longer covered by patents. If additional studies verify that it works, expect production to be quickly ramped up in many places. Of course, even it it works, there is a correct dosage, and more is not better.
Almost all medications are inherently poisons. It is a matter of dosage. There are published toxicities, as well as non-trivial side effects for long term use of chloroquine.
Yep, we are only talking 300mg per day for 5-7 days
Take as directed in Nigeria probably means if some works good, more would be way better. Nobody is going to overdose on 400 mg of hydrochloroquine. It does have side effects though.
If anyone looking for evidence in flattening of the curve today … check the bond market.
I take it the bond yield curve flattened? Makes sense if so, since QE-Infinity means we’ll be Zimbabwe soon, worse case. Stock market however is not buying it for now, as stocks still fell after the big Fed bazooka news.
Mish, seems those are cases of self medicating, likely, “more is better” mentality.
Nigeria reported two cases of chloroquine poisoning after U.S. President Donald Trump praised the anti-malaria drug as a treatment for the novel coronavirus.
Health officials are warning Nigerians against self-medicating after demand for the drug surged in Lagos, a city that’s home to 20 million people. Two people were hospitalized in Lagos for chloroquine overdoses, Oreoluwa Finnih, senior health assistant to the governor of Lagos, said in an interview.
“Please don’t panic,” she said via text message. “Chloroquine is still in a testing phase in combination with other medication and not yet verified as a preventive treatment or curative option.”
@Mish granted, but you are citing… Nigeria. 🤦♂️
Not sure how Kyle Bass can stay in business for so long. So he got the mortgage crisis right, but since then, he’s been wrong pretty much EVERY SINGLE TIME.
I also would not trust a hedge fund manager who is nationalistic. His number one job is to earn returns for his clients, not be a right winger.
Total loser. Conflating anecdotes with …. “data”.