Not Breaking News; HCQ could have saved the lives of millions of people around the world

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Many of us have moved on from this pandemic; we are tired of hearing about it, talking about it…

As a journalist who has been covering this pandemic, watching foreign news stations speak about this disease that was causing people in Wuhan China to drop dead on the streets, there is probably no one more tired of this charade.

A charade, because despite what our: health officials, government officials, and mainstream media have been touting, this pandemic was mismanaged, misguided, and miserable for everyone, except those in power. What makes it hard to stomach is that research is being released all over the world that we could have prevented the deaths of millions of people, but many of our governments for some reason have ignored this fact.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), also known by its trade name Plaquenil®, has been used for over 50 years as a treatment for: malaria, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. HCQ began to garner attention as a potential treatment and as prophylaxis against COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic.

A man who we hold in high regard – Dr. Zev Zelenko – a man who unfortunately is no longer with us, was one of the first international doctors to that HCQ as well as chloroquine (CQ) possessed in vitro antiviral activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). His work led to numerous investigations of its efficacy in preventing infection, hospitalization, and mortality.

We thought that it would be important to take another look at what was going on in the research world, and I discovered a write up by Peter Navarro (who served as the Defence Production Act Policy Coordinator during the Trump presidency), and Dr. Steven Hatfill (specialist physician and virologist) in the Washington Times. It highlights the fact that as of August 2022, there have been:

• 354 studies of HCQ as a treatment for COVID-19
• It involved 5,764 scientists, and 482,000 patients in 51 countries

Meta-analysis across these studies demonstrates a resounding 57% to 81% improvement in mortality when given in early treatment and 41-percent reduction in hospitalization.

According to Mr Navarro and Mr Hatfill, “If physicians had been allowed to freely prescribe HCQ off-label to outpatients within the first seven days of their symptoms, anywhere from 570,000 to 810,000 Americans would still be alive today of the million Americans who lost their lives.  Here, we must be reminded that these lost souls were our parents or grandparents or friends or lovers or (very rarely) children who turned out to be nothing more than dust in the political and partisan winds fanned not just by the FDA but by the Faucites across the U.S. health bureaucracy and a “hydroxy hysteria” CNN and New York Times.”   

Okay, all that sounds great, but words are never enough for me. I wanted to see HCQ in action, so I dug a little deeper.

I came across some studies for HCQ, and some studies against, some skewed depending on what the researcher was trying to find. A group of studies caught my interest. HCQ for COVID-19: real-time meta analysis of 368 studies conducted 20 early treatment studies show statistically significant improvements in isolation (14 for the most serious outcome). Data also revealed that late treatment is less successful, with only 67% of the 243 studies reporting a positive effect. Very late stage treatment is not effective and may be harmful, especially when using excessive dosages.

On a more positive note, HCQ reduces risk for COVID-19 with very high confidence for: mortality, hospitalizations, cases, viral clearance and in pooled analysis.

I took a look at the Health Canada website and their latest update shows that there are a number of medications being investigated to treat or prevent COVID-19, both in Canada and internationally.  The best way to access experimental therapies is through clinical trials. Health Canada has authorized clinical trials with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. To date, data from clinical trials are limited, and the results have not conclusively shown that any specific medications are effective against COVID-19…

Well except the inoculation of course, but that is a whole other story, that we don’t have time to get into right now.

Further research brought me to the National Library of Medicine. On March 28^th, 2020, the FDA approved emergency use authorization of HCQ and CQ for the treatment of COVID-19. On June 15^th, 2020, the FDA then revoked this emergency use authorization for both HCQ and CQ as emerging literature, including the influential RECOVERY trial, indicated no clinical benefit attributed to HCQ use in the treatment of COVID-19.

I think this was about the time that the vaccine campaign started isn’t it? Hmmmmm!

We will not draw conclusions for you, but we will engage your thoughts. Could all of this have been prevented? Did we all lose loved ones for no reason?