We don’t know from Kristi Noem yet if pushing hydroxychloroquine can get one hired by the Trump Administration, but former Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority chief Rick Bright says in a whistleblower complaint made public yesterday that pushing against the Trump Administration’s promotion of that untested and dangerous drug got him fired… or at least demoted:
Bright says that in an effort to get the word out to the public about the risks associated with hydroxychloroquine, he shared with a reporter nonclassified emails between HHS officials that “discussed the drug’s potential toxicity and demonstrated the political pressure to rush these drugs from Pakistan and India to American households.” He says [HHS Secretary Alex] Azar and [HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert] Kadlec removed him from his post within days of publication of an article about chloroquine because they suspected he was the article’s source [Laurel Wamsley, “Rick Bright, Former Top Vaccine Scientist, Files Whistleblower Complaint,” NPR, 2020.05.05].
Fire the scientists, hire the flunkies—that’s Trumpism.
Trump has spent the last couple months spewing terms about which he knows nothing, hoping that maybe he’s coincidentally mention something that turns out to be a miracle cure for which he can then claim credit (“I told you so!”). Alas, his peddling of hydroxychloroquine seems only to have resulted in a brief shortage of drugs for lupus and arthritis patients and an already fading surge in prescriptions and chemical manufacturing.
Corey, I have written twice to Gov Noem for an update on the hydroxychloroquine clinical trials that we were the first state to implement. Haven’t heard back. Do you know anything?
Mr. Drube, I too have been wondering how that’s going. grudznick, however, wrote to Sanford as I figured as scientists they were the ones actually conducting the trials. It’s possible Governor Noem is out there with placebos and real pills and a notebook jotting down who gets which and what’s happening. I’ll let you know what I hear from Sanford if you let me know what the Governor says and we’ll see if they are working together on this or in parallel.
(Disclaimer: grudznick can’t confirm or deny that he is part of the trials.)
If this is a real clinical trial, which I think it is not, you aren’t going to know the results this fast. And, Grudz, they aren’t going to tell YOU a goddam thing if they are conducting a real clinical trial. Certainly, Noem wouldn’t know any results. She might know if they have begun. But my guess is this is more what Cory has referred to above: “We don’t know from Kristi Noem yet if pushing hydroxychloroquine can get one hired by the Trump Administration….” The real point was, as in Trump’s attempt to get Ukraine’s President to announce an investigation of “the Bidens,” THE ANNOUNCEMENT. It doesn’t matter if the clinical trials are actually completed, or even started.
Kristi must be really hot for that cabinet position. She followed Big Daddy trump with a set of “do your own thing” rules for the state. Jumped on a chance to please Papa with a first in the nation chloroquine trial. Will she be setting up Clorox injections and UV enemas for us, too? How blatant can you get?
Donald pay, I can say sincerely it would have been a treat for me to have met you in person, but now, your days in Wisconsin are numbered thanks to moronic wingnuts in the lege and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/wisconsin-supreme-court-lift-covid-restrictions-fox-news.html
If it happens, I surely will miss your wit and intelligence here. mikey has a sad, now. :(
I haven’t heard anything, and normally solid clinical trials should take a long time, but doctors have been sharing information with each other pretty quickly in an effort to get a grip on this pandemic as fast as possible. It may take time for peer-reviewed results, but there have been plenty of studies released in the past couple months with preliminary data, raw data, best guesses… there’s not reason not to tell us how things appear to be going so far and to share the data so lots of scientists can analyze it.
Here is a small article about how many have signed up for the trial so far in SD. Only 270.
https://www.blackhillsfox.com/content/news/South-Dakota-hydroxychloroquine-clinical-trial-off-to-slow-start-570251041.html
MFI,
We’ve got a nutcase state Supreme Court, Five have the typical conservative philosophy of putting business ahead of life of workers. These hypocrites heard this case over Zoom, refusing to open up their courtroom, yet they are likely going to invalidated Governor Ever’s safer-at-home orders, resulting in killing workers.
Just to show you what elitist Republicans talk like, here is Chief Justice Roggensack arguing back against the Governor’s attorney’s argument that Brown County has had a surge in new COVID cases making the stay-at-home order still relevant:
CHIEF JUSTICE ROGGENSACK: That was due to the meatpacking, though. That’s where Brown County got the flare. It just wasn’t just the regular folks in Brown County.
Understand this elitist statement by a conservative justice segregates out workers at a meat-packing plant as somehow not the “regular folks in Brown County.” That perfectly describes the Republican philosophy. They hide away in remote estates and hear oral arguments because they are the chosen one, what she calls “the regular folks.” She could care less about the workers.
When the revolution comes, I hope Pat Roggensack’s head is the first one on the pike.
Holy crap. Roggensack couldn’t make her racism/elitism much clearer.
Shamelessness is still not a virtue.
– Douglas Adams
Donald Pay, I have followed the merry adventures of Wisconsin’s wingnuts through Madison Cap Times for several years. The Times has a number of excellent opinion writers at their disposal.
My favorite court tale is …. https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2011/06/28/137480847/wisconsins-alleged-high-court-choking-incident-gets-two-probes
I am happy to know you are still with us, for now. :)
According to National Geographic, the wildlife trade is guaranteed to bring another pandemic and it could just as easily begin in the USA. This is an example of common shipments to our ports:
“TWENTY THOUSAND LIVE bullfrogs from China that will be cooked and eaten as frog legs. Forty green monkeys from St. Kitts and Nevis for biomedical research. Three hundred giant clams from Vietnam and 30 stingrays from the Brazilian Amazon for home aquariums.”
(Nat Geo is paywalled, but you may get a free article.)
“To prevent the next pandemic, it’s the legal wildlife trade we should worry about”
https://flip.it/egw2MA