Yesterday, we received a “false information” violation from Facebook for the crime of reporting about a group of medical doctors who took part in a press conference and shared their personal experiences of how hydroxychloroquine cured their patients of COVID-19.
Donald Trump Jr., Prager U, Breitbart News, and several other conservative news outlets were also targeted by tech giants for the crime of publishing the video of the press conference. Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended for sharing the video. PragerU was also temporarily suspended on Twitter for sharing the video and the video that was originally posted by Breitbart on Facebook, which had garnered over 15 million views, was deleted by Facebook.
Facebook’s third-party “fact-checker” a group that refers to themselves as “Science Feedback,” has been tasked with determining which type of drugs their users are allowed to talk about when it comes to discussing a potential cure for COVID-19 and which ones are considered “incorrect.” The effect of “false news” violations by Facebook’s third-party fact-checkers against conservative voices is twofold—first, they harm your reputation by making your followers question your reliability as a news source, and second, the violation causes your content to be hidden from your followers. In the case of our 100 Percent Fed Up Facebook page, hiding the content from 1.7 million followers for 3 months leading up to the election can have massive consequences.
The effect of “false news” violations by Facebook’s third-party fact-checkers against conservative voices is twofold—first, they harm your reputation by making your followers question your reliability as a news source, and second, the violation causes your content to be hidden from your followers. In the case of our 100 Percent Fed Up Facebook page, hiding the content from our 1.7 million followers for 3 months leading up to the election can have massive consequences. Facebook, of course, knows this.
So, why does Facebook treat top conservative pages on their platform who are sharing information about successes medical doctors have had with hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 patients as though they’re telling their followers to eat Tide Pods to cure COVID?
There are plenty of reports to back up the doctor’s claims, including this July 2, 2020, report from the highly respected Henry Ford Health System:
Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine Cut Death Rate Significantly in COVID-19 Patients, Henry Ford Health System Study Shows
Henry Ford Health System -Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study published by Henry Ford Health System.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw1IeI7Lrz4
In a large-scale retrospective analysis of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020, across the system’s six hospitals, the study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. None of the patients had documented serious heart abnormalities; however, patients were monitored for a heart condition routinely pointed to as a reason to avoid the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.
The study was published today in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, the peer-reviewed, open-access online publication of the International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID.org).
Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine at Henry Ford met specific protocol criteria as outlined by the hospital system’s Division of Infectious Diseases. The vast majority received the drug soon after admission; 82% within 24 hours and 91% within 48 hours of admission. All patients in the study were 18 or over with a median age of 64 years; 51% were men and 56% African American.
“The findings have been highly analyzed and peer-reviewed,” said Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of Infectious Disease for Henry Ford Health System, who co-authored the study with Henry Ford epidemiologist Samia Arshad. “We attribute our findings that differ from other studies to early treatment, and part of a combination of interventions that were done in supportive care of patients, including careful cardiac monitoring. Our dosing also differed from other studies not showing a benefit of the drug. And other studies are either not peer-reviewed, have limited numbers of patients, different patient populations or other differences from our patients.”
Zervos said the potential for a surge in the fall or sooner, and infections continuing worldwide, show an urgency to identifying inexpensive and effective therapies and preventions.
“We’re glad to add to the scientific knowledge base on the role and how best to use therapies as we work around the world to provide insight,” he said. “Considered in the context of current studies on the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, our results suggest that the drug may have an important role to play in reducing COVID-19 mortality.”
The study also found those treated with azithromycin alone or a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin also fared slightly better than those not treated with the drugs, according to the Henry Ford data. The analysis found 22.4% of those treated only with azithromycin died, and 20.1% treated with a combination of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine died, compared to 26.4% of patients dying who were not treated with either medication.
“Our analysis shows that using hydroxychloroquine helped saves lives,” said neurosurgeon Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO, Henry Ford Medical Group and Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of Henry Ford Health System. “As doctors and scientists, we look to the data for insight. And the data here is clear that there was benefit to using the drug as a treatment for sick, hospitalized patients.”
Overall, hospital system patients in the study experienced an 18.1% in-hospital mortality rate. Regardless of treatment, mortality was highest in:
- Patients older than 65,
- Patients who identified as Caucasian,
- Patients admitted with reduced oxygen levels,
- Patients who required ICU admission.
Patients who died commonly had serious underlying diseases, including chronic kidney and lung disease, with 88% dying from respiratory failure. Globally, the overall mortality from SARS-COV-2 is estimated to be approximately 6% to 7%, with mortality in hospitalized patients ranging between 10% and 30%, according to the study. Mortality as high as 58% has been seen among patients requiring ICU care and mechanical ventilation.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, hydroxychloroquine (also known as hydroxychloroquine sulfate) is a U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)-approved arthritis medicine that also can be used to prevent or treat malaria. It is available in the United States by prescription only. The drug is sold under the brand name Plaquenil and it is also sold as a generic medicine. It is commonly used by patients with arthritis, lupus or other rheumatic conditions.
Dr. Zervos also pointed out, as does the paper, that the study results should be interpreted with some caution, should not be applied to patients treated outside of hospital settings and require further confirmation in prospective, randomized controlled trials that rigorously evaluate the safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine therapy for COVID-19.
“Currently, the drug should be used only in hospitalized patients with appropriate monitoring, and as part of study protocols, in accordance with all relevant federal regulations,” Dr. Zervos said.
Henry Ford Health System, as one of the region’s major academic medical centers with more than $100 million in annual research funding, is involved in numerous COVID-19 trials with national and international partners.
Henry Ford Health System is currently also involved in a prophylactic hydroxychloroquine study: “Will Hydroxychloroquine Impede or Prevent COVID-19,” or WHIP COVID-19. The study is a 3,000-person, randomized, double-blinded look at whether hydroxychloroquine prevents healthcare and frontline workers from contracting the COVID-19 virus. The WHIP COVID-19 team is working on expanding study sites while there is a lull in the number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Michigan. This is in preparation for a potential increase of COVID-19 cases as Fall flu season approaches, with additional sites available for convenient enrollment of healthcare workers and first responders. The WHIP COVID-19 team is also taking this gift of time to reach out to other areas of the world that are seeing a blossoming of cases: Brazil and Argentina. There are currently 619 people enrolled in the study, out of a target of 3,000.
And then, there’s the well-known Yale epidemiologist, Dr. Harvey Risch who’s been blasting the medical community for ignoring the benefits of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, especially Dr. Anthony Fauci, who he accuses of waging a “misinformation campaign” against the drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.
Dr. Harvey Risch, a noted Yale epidemiologist, has accused White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci of waging a “misinformation campaign” against the drug hydroxychloroquine, claiming the medication has shown consistently encouraging results in treating COVID-19 when used properly.
Watch:
Since Trump’s endorsement of the drug, media outlets and medical officials have aggressively promoted various medical trials that have determined the drug has no effect in fighting the Chinese virus; many commentators have also insisted, in spite of the drug’s decades-long safe track record, that it is “too dangerous to be used to cure the disease.”
Among the drug’s strongest critics has been Fauci. In March, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases dismissed claims of hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness as “anecdotal” and has periodically voiced that skepticism over the course of the pandemic.
On Tuesday during an interview on “Good Morning America,” Fauci further downplayed the drug’s purported benefit, claiming that “the overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in [treating] coronavirus disease.”
Risch, however, is sharply criticizing Fauci’s approach to evaluating the drug’s effectiveness, arguing that repeated trials and tests have shown that it is markedly effective at treating the Chinese virus, so long as it is administered properly.
Contrary to the leftist media’s agenda, Dr. Harvey Risch, an epidemiology professor at Yale School of Public Health, said last week that he thinks hydroxychloroquine could save 75,000 to 100,000 lives in the global fight against COVID-19, as previously reported by 100% FED Up.
“There are many doctors that I’ve gotten hostile remarks about saying that all the evidence is bad for it and, in fact, that is not true at all,” Risch told “Ingraham Angle,” adding that he believes the drug can be used as a “prophylactic” for front-line workers, including nurses, doctors, first responders, and grocery workers.
Risch lamented that a “propaganda war” is being waged against the use of the drug for political purposes, not based on “medical facts.”
Risch said that most in the mainstream are not allowing people to speak about the evidence on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. Risch also said discussions about the drug became “political” as opposed to “medical.”
Today, Yale’s Dean of Public Health came out in defense of Dr. Risch and the attacks that have been made against him for speaking out about hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19.
‘I have championed maintaining open academic discourse, including what some may view as unpopular voices,’ dean says
The College Fix reports – The dean of Yale’s public health department, Dr. Sten Vermund, has come out in defense of his colleague’s right to explore and promote hydroxychloroquine as a viable treatment for coronavirus.
Yale epidemiologist and public health professor Dr. Harvey Risch has come under heavy fire recently for arguing that hydroxychloroquine if used to treat coronavirus, could save up to 100,000 lives.
In a statement published Wednesday by Vermund, dean of the Yale School of Public Health within the Ivy League university’s School of Medicine, he said he champions “maintaining open academic discourse, including what some may view as unpopular voices. The tradition of academia is that faculty may do research, interpret their work, and disseminate their findings.”
The dean flagged Risch’s article in May in the American Journal of Epidemiology that cites evidence to support Risch’s belief that hydroxychloroquine is good to “use for out-patient infection with SARS-CoV-2.”
Vermund noted that if “persons disagree with Dr. Risch’s review of the literature, it would be advisable to disseminate the alternative scientific interpretations, perhaps through letters or other publications with alternative viewpoints to the American Journal of Epidemiology, Newsweek, or other outlets.”
“My role as Dean is not to suppress the work of the faculty, but rather, to support the academic freedom of our faculty, whether it is in the mainstream of thinking or is contrarian,” Vermund stated.
The controversy began after Risch appeared on Fox News’ Ingraham Angle where he told host Laura Ingraham that doctors are being unfairly targeted by state medical boards for using the anti-malarial drug to treat patients with coronavirus.
Risch told Ingraham that releasing the stockpile of hydroxychloroquine could save “75,000 to 100,000 lives.”
He said if President Donald Trump and the FDA allowed broader use of hydroxychloroquine that the results would be “game-changing.”
