Did you feel frustrated watching the vice-presidential candidates’ debate?
According to Sen. Kamala Harris, more than 200,000 premature American deaths are Trump’s fault. According to Vice-President Pence, China is to blame. Biden has a Plan. (More lockdowns? Not clear.) Trump touts rapid development of treatments and vaccines by American scientists and industry.
There are many candidates for blame, but we should focus on what we can learn to prevent future disasters, and what we can do now to stop the dying.
Why did the epidemic get out of hand?
Was it the fault of the World Health Organization (WHO) and its Chinese supporters who declared that there was no human-to-human transmission?
Or of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that forbade all tests except its own, which were defective?
What about officials who failed to replace stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE), which were depleted in the 2009 influenza epidemic? Or government agencies and/or industries that outsourced production of PPE to China long ago?
What was the responsibility of state and local officials, such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ordered nursing homes to admit infected persons, or Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who encouraged New Yorkers to party? (Downstate New York had nearly the worst mortality in the world; excluding downstate New York makes U.S. mortality figures better than most of Europe instead of worse.)
President Trump got prompt treatment with antibodies from Regeneron and the antiviral drug remdesivir—experimental therapies available to very few. He also received zinc and high doses of vitamin D. You can get these over the counter and take them for prevention—if you know about them.
Doctors are reporting success with many re-purposed therapies, including low-dose radiation. C19study.com has posted 132 studies of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), mostly positive; 15 of vitamin D (all positive except one inconclusive); 12 of ivermectin (all positive except three inconclusive); and three of Regeneron (one human trial). Why then will most Americans be denied home treatment?
Internet censors remove references to treatment deemed to detract from WHO’s preferred narrative. The FDA has stated: “There are currently no drugs or biological products approved or licensed for the treatment of COVID-19 in the United States.” It acknowledges that physicians have the legal right to prescribe approved drugs “off label” as they deem appropriate. However, FDA’s statement that HCQ will have no clinical effect and may harm the patient has made it extremely difficult for most patients to get a prescription.
Have 100,000 people died needlessly because they were denied an old, unprofitable treatment, as Yale epidemiologist Harvey Risch has suggested? That is the fault of powerful influences that did not begin with President Trump and will not end if Democrats take back the White House.
