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8/17/20, “MN Governor Quietly Reverses Course on Hydroxychloroquine,” Real Clear Politics, Jon Miltimore, Commentary
[Image of Exec. Order, Miltimore twitter]“This past week Minnesota became the second state to reject regulations that effectively ban the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine for use by COVID-19 patients.
The decision, which comes two weeks after the Ohio Board of Pharmacy reversed an effective ban of its own, was rightfully praised by local health care advocates. “We are pleased that Governor [Tim] Walz lifted his March 27 Executive Order 20-23 restrictions on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine,” said Twila Brase, president of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom.
The reversal by Walz, a first-term Democrat, clears the way for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat malaria and other conditions but one the FDA has declined to recommend for COVID-19 treatment.
The decision is the latest development in the weird saga of arguably the most divisive drug in modern history. The acrimony began in March after President Trump tweeted that hydroxychloroquine had the potential to be “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” as a treatment for the coronavirus.
The tweet and similar statements provoked an avalanche of media criticism, with many claiming that the president was going to get people killed. Critics pointed out that medical evidence suggests the medication is linked to a fatal arrhythmia and some trials show no benefits in coronavirus treatments….
In recent weeks a chorus of voices in the medical community has emerged to challenge the view that hydroxychloroquine is ineffective as a COVID treatment. Dr. Harvey A. Risch, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said a full analysis of the literature suggests hydroxychloroquine may be the key to defeating the coronavirus.
“Physicians who have been using these medications in the face of widespread skepticism have been truly heroic,” Risch wrote in Newsweek, adding that a full review of the COVID literature on the drug shows “clear-cut and significant benefits.”
Prescribing hydroxychloroquine in the early stages of the virus is key, Risch said, and others agree. Steven Hatfill, a veteran virologist and adjunct assistant professor at the George Washington University Medical Center, says the literature supporting hydroxychloroquine is overwhelming.
“There are now 53 studies that show positive results of hydroxychloroquine in COVID infections,” Hatfill wrote in RealClearPolitics. There are 14 global studies that show neutral or negative results–and 10 of “them were of patients in very late stages of COVID-19, where no antiviral drug can be expected to have much effect.”
One of the positive studies, published by Henry Ford Health System, was a large-scale retrospective of six hospitals. Analyzing 2,541 patients, it found that those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died at about half the rate of patients not treated with it.
It’s unclear if it was this research that prompted Walz to reverse his March ruling, which ordered the Board of Pharmacists to instruct pharmacists to not issue hydroxychloroquine prescriptions unless the diagnosis was “appropriate” — which halted any off-label prescription requests.
The reason it’s unclear is that Walz has been mum on why he rescinded his order. There’s been no announcement or new stories. Local lawmakers told me they had no idea Walz had reversed course.
“There’s been absolutely no transparency here,” said Dr. Scott Jensen, a Republican state senator who criticized Walz’s approach. Jensen, who has practiced medicine for more than 30 years in Minnesota, told me pharmacists he’s worked with for years told him they could not fill a hydroxychloroquine prescription for COVID because of the March executive order.
He agrees that hydroxychloroquine is terribly misunderstood by the public and said politicians need to take a step back. “Hydroxychloroquine is one of the most studied drugs in the history of mankind,” Jensen said. “My wife was on hydroxychloroquine for 15 years. It’s been on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines for decades. It’s been in play since 1955, the year after I was born.”
Hydroxychloroquine might be politically controversial, but that hasn’t stopped some of its critics from taking advantage of the drug. In a May interview, former presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar admitted her husband was successfully treated with hydroxychloroquine, a medication she had mocked on Twitter….
If Walz’s decision is any indication, at least some leaders are starting to recognize the ethical dilemma of using the long arm of government to stand between suffering patients and a drug that may have the potential to save them.”
“Jon Miltimore is the managing editor of Foundation for Economic Education (FEE.org).”
Added: Newsweek: Husband of Democrat US Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar was successfully treated for Covid with Hydroxychloroquine:
[Image: Sen. Klobuchar and husband John Bessler] May 29, 2020, “Amy Klobuchar Mocks Donald Trump for Hydroxychloroquine Use After Her Husband Was Treated With Antimalarial Drug,” Newsweek, Elizabeth Crisp
“Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is among the many critics of President Donald Trump who have openly mocked his decision to take controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure against COVID-19. But what Klobuchar hasn’t widely discussed is that her husband also took the drug when he had the disease.
“They say that hydroxychloroquine can lead to hallucinations,” Klobuchar posted on Twitter May 20, in response to a seemingly random tweet from the president about the Democratic primary several weeks after it had already ended with former Vice President Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee.
But Klobuchar’s husband, John Bessler, is among patients who were prescribed hydroxychloroquine to treat severe symptoms after contracting COVID-19, she said in an April 7 interview with SiriusXM’s Michael Smerconish that’s received relatively little mainstream attention.
“I listened to the science there,” she said. “I think that we have to listen to the science and you have to listen to your doctors with what is going to work in each individual situation.”
She said about hydroxychloroquine specifically: “Sometimes you might have other conditions that make it so you can’t take certain drugs. Sometimes your own condition with the virus wouldn’t demand. I think people have to look at what works.”
Klouchar, a potential Democratic vice presidential contender, took another dig at Trump’s push in favor of the drug: “I believe in science—something this president has not been listening to.”
A spokesman for Klobuchar declined Newsweek‘s request for comment or an interview to provide more details.
Klobuchar did speak widely about her family’s ordeal with COVID-19 after her husband had to be hospitalized for a week, but she has said little about the role of hydroxychloroquine—even as the drug became a lightning rod amid the pandemic and Trump’s frequent mentions of it. Klobuchar’s comments during the radio interview were prompted by a question from the host about the drug.
The circumstances are not the same as the experience that has been shared by Trump, who said he took the [so-called] controversial drug as a preventive measure with a doctor’s prescription while keeping meetings and public events at the White House for two weeks after his personal valet and a spokeswoman for the vice president tested positive for the coronavirus. The drug’s prophylactic effects are [allegedly] unproven and the FDA has cautioned against people taking it outside of hospitals or clinical trials because it could cause heart problems….
Trump has repeatedly defended his decision to take hydroxychloroquine and vocal support of its use by others as a COVID-19 treatment during the outbreak.
“It’s had a great reputation, and if it was somebody else other than me, people would say, ‘Gee, isn’t that smart?'” Trump told reporters after a recent meeting with GOP senators on Capitol Hill.
Bessler played an active role in Klobuchar’s unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Klobuchar reportedly remains on a shortlist for Biden’s possible vice presidential picks, after endorsing him shortly after she got out of the race….
During the interview on SiriusXM’s POTUS Politics, Klobuchar discussed the difficult time her family faced while her husband was in the hospital.
“When they’re in the hospital, you can’t visit them, you can’t be by their bedside, you can’t hold their hand,” she said. “It’s one of the hardest things with this disease.”
She also discussed her husband’s experience in an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in late March. The article doesn’t mention that Bessler was treated with hydroxychloroquine.
“There was a point where he just wasn’t getting better,” she told the Minnesota newspaper. “I never said it to him because I couldn’t go see him. But you start to wonder. You just go on with your day because you can’t be there. So you say, ‘OK, I’m going to go vote on this. I’m going to do this and that.’
“Then they say, ‘You know, it’s getting worse. The oxygen is getting worse.’ And you can’t go there to see it yourself. You can’t even go to thank the health care providers who are there. Everything is over the phone. So it feels so distant. And it makes it, in a way, scarier.””
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