Well, the COVID lockdowns are over. Democratic governors may not have said so, but they’re over. Everyone has been outside rioting following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Social distancing—all of it was a lie. The experts now pretty much say ‘get the hell out there’ because racism is just as bad as the pandemic that we were told warranted a total shutdown of the U.S. economy. Actually, it was done to trash the economy in an effort to better chances for Democrats this year. Many of you already saw this, but this stunning 180-degree reversal makes it crystal clear. Unrest, rioting, in their minds, makes Trump look bad. They want to make him look bad. These mass protests, many of which became riots, were just the thing to get Democrats energized or something. Or so they thought; we still have an eternity to go until Election Day.
COVID panic was wearing off, but these protests are the next best thing, I guess. We have epidemiologists from places like Johns Hopkins supporting these protests. I guess viruses have a pause button. We were told that we were selfish bastards if we went outside, wanted to reopen businesses, albeit safely, or supported others who wanted to reopen their businesses. Now, it’s ‘why are you inside not protesting white supremacy, you selfish bastards.’ It’s one or the other. It cannot be both, but in liberal America, where there are no rules, no standards, and there’s nothing but moral rot—anything goes. See an expert, throw a rock. That should be the motto.
Yet, let’s go back to when before the Floyd unrest occurred. The president was mentioning hydroxychloroquine as a possible therapeutic. We don’t have a vaccine for COVID-19. We still don’t. But good news or progress made towards fighting this virus is bad. It helps Trump. So, despite 65 percent doctors in the US saying they would take hydroxychloroquine to treat symptoms of COVID-19 and thousands of doctors from dozens of countries ranking this as one of the best treatments thus far, the media has tried their best to discredit this drug, even going so far as to peddle fake studies to make their point. Leah wrote about it for VIP. Here’s what the Guardian found:
A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere’s employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess.
The company’s LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.
While Surgisphere claims to run one of the largest and fastest hospital databases in the world, it has almost no online presence. Its Twitter handle has fewer than 170 followers, with no posts between October 2017 and March 2020.
Until Monday, the “get in touch” link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.
[Surgisphere’s chief executive Sapan] Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as “unfounded”.
In 2008, Desai launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo promoting a wearable “next generation human augmentation device that can help you achieve what you never thought was possible”. The device never came to fruition.
Desai’s Wikipedia page has been deleted following questions about Surgisphere and his history, first raised in 2010.
There was another prevention study done by the University of Minnesota Medical School, which undercut the use of hydroxychloroquine. But former CNN producer Steve Krakauer demolished it with one tweet; take note of the final and key paragraph. Here’s what the Washington Post reported, with a headline aimed to a taking a swipe at Trump [emphasis mine]:
The study is the first randomized clinical trial that tested the antimalarial drug as a preventive measure, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School who conducted the trial. It showed that hydroxychloroquine, which has been touted by President Trump, was no more effective than a placebo — in this case, a vitamin — in protecting people exposed to covid-19.
“As we say in Tennessee, ‘that dog won’t hunt’ — it didn’t work,” said William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Schaffner, who was not involved in the trial, praised it as “rigorously done.”
[…]
The prevention trial released Wednesday showed 40 percent of the participants who took the drug developed side effects that were not serious — mostly nausea, upset stomach and diarrhea. The study found no serious side effects or cardiac complications, the researchers said.
[…]
David Boulware, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Minnesota and the study’s senior investigator, said he launched the trial because hydroxychloroquine had shown signs in a lab setting that it might be effective against the virus.
About two-thirds of the trial participants were health-care workers and the rest were a mix of other people exposed to someone with covid-19, he said.
[…]
One weakness of the trial, he added, is that because testing was not widely available during the time of the trial, their analysis used a combination of lab-confirmed positive covid-19 tests and symptoms to count someone as infected.
Oh, these experts. As Krakauer noted, this means we actually don’t know. Clap it up, guys. You’re no better than the Democratic National Committee.
Last paragraph: "One weakness of the trial, he added, is that because testing was not widely available during the time of the trial, their analysis used a combination of lab-confirmed positive coved-19 tests and symptoms to count someone as infected.”
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) June 3, 2020
So…we don’t know actually. https://t.co/aqMcwSd8xT
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