Trump pushes FDA to use anti-malaria drug for coronavirus

News with a Twist

FDA replies: “Not so fast,” so Trump calls for progress on other alternative remedies

NOTE TO READERS:

The coronavirus pandemic is not a laughing matter. And Trump’s and his team’s handling of the crisis is tragic, not funny. Yesterday I posted a column entitled “2020 Election: American Nightmare?” I felt t was so important, I forwarded the post in a letter to my Congresswoman, Lois Frankel (https://around-the-block.com/2020/03/19/open-letter-to-rep-lois-frankel-d-fl/).

This morning, the renowned author, professor and historian, Jon Meacham wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times entitled ‘We Can’t Let Coronavirus Postpone Elections” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/opinion/coronavirus-election-primary-postpone.html). Here is, in part, what Meacham wrote: “…for chaos could lead to a nightmare scenario: the possibility that President Trump might take advantage of the unfolding health crisis to delay the November election.”

As we face one of the greatest crises in our lifetimes, led by the most incompetent leader in our history, as we “shelter in place” in California and undoubtably soon in other states and cities, as we sink deeper into this dystopian reality that is not fiction, we still need to smile and to laugh (but alas, not hug). Hopefully my little bit of satirical humor will help. I hope so. Because if we can’t laugh in the face of adversity, we’re doomed.

So forgive me for both the “You can’t make this up” and the “I actually made this up” commentary below.

Multiple news organizations reported that President Trump announced that “an anti-malaria drug has been approved for use in treating coronavirus symptoms.

The drug Hydroxychloroquine, more commonly known, according to Trump, as Hydroxychloroquine, and used on malaria and arthritis patients, will be made available “almost immediately” to coronavirus patients with a prescription, Trump said during the administration’s coronavirus task force briefing on Thursday. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration “has slashed red tape so they could fast track the approval of the drug’s new use,” he added. It has had “very encouraging early results” in tests on COVID-19, he said, adding that the coronavirus pandemic was now a “medical war.”

Trump said people would be trying the drug “literally within a few days.”

Almost immediately, however, the FDA cautioned a more measured approach. cautioning that widespread use was still a long way off.

Around the Block’s fact-checker, Miss Emily Litella, when asked about Trump’s assertions said simply, “Never mind.”

Although not mentioned in the president’s press conference today, Around the Block has learned that Trump demanded his medical team, the FDA, the CDC and the NIH to work harder at finding a solution. Among the procedures Trump requested immediate action on were: Bloodletting, Charms, Trepanning, plants and herbs such as Deadly Nightshade, Lungwort, Toothwort and Skullcap, and, most promising in Trump’s learned opinion, Leech Therapy.

Results of these new, breakthrough remedies will be announced, according to Vice President and coronavirus task force leader, Mike Pence, “very soon.”