hydroxychloroquine

We are pleased to present this opinion article on Hydroxychloroquine. To download the article, click HERE.

The Silencing of America’s Frontline Doctors

How “astroturfing” techniques suppress the science of hydroxychloroquine

Deborah Hutchins PhD

In 2015, independent journalist, Sharyl Attkisson, gave a Tedx talk on a media manipulation technique she called “astroturfing”.  Using a pharmaceutical product as an example, she showed how clandestine special interests manipulate public opinion about drug safety and effectiveness by distorting the coverage of research studies, creating ostensible grass-roots narratives on social media, and dismissing naysayers as quacks, cranks, and nuts.

During the week of July 27, 2020, ordinary Americans witnessed the technique in full flower, as a press conference held by a group calling itself America’s Frontline Doctors saw its message systematically censored and replaced by an alternative narrative in real time.

The doctors’ group, led by emergency room physician and lawyer, Dr. Simone Gold, advocates for early treatment of COVID-19 with a 5-day regimen that involves a combination of zinc salt (Zn), the antibiotic, azithromycin (AZM, or Z-Pak®), and the antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).  They maintain that the regimen works when used early and that patients are being denied safe and inexpensive options that would help them when used correctly.

On Monday July 27, 2020, they presented a series of seminars on Capitol Hill describing the cell biology of SARS-Cov-2 infection and exposing the misrepresentation of available treatments, in particular, hydroxychloroquine.  Their afternoon press conference, ignored by mainstream media outlets, was live-streamed by Breitbart, and clips of impassioned statements by a Nigeria-trained physician from Cameroon, Dr. Stella Immanuel, went viral on social media.

The following day, people viewed pertinent links removed in midstream, found the doctors’ website scrubbed, witnessed those re-tweeting clips temporarily de-platformed, and saw articles that pilloried Dr. Immanuel at the top of search engine results for the doctors’ group.  The doctors quickly rebuilt their website with a new name, but in a countermove, the original “americasfrontlinedoctors” domain name was reissued with the .org suffix to display official COVID-19 information from the CDC.

With access to the group’s 29-page white paper and research study compendium thus buried, an alternative narrative [See Editor’s note] of trust in the scientific establishment quickly circulated on social media.  It cites negative studies; claims that the drug, Remdesivir, is “more promising”; that Dr. Immanuel’s patients would have gotten better “anyhow”; and that the press conference was “false and misleading”.  By Thursday, Dr. Gold announced that she had been fired and had retained noted lawyer Lin Wood, cautioning others not to defame her professional reputation.

Interest in HCQ emerged early in the outbreak when Chinese clinicians noted that, of the first 138 COVID patients admitted to the hospital, none had lupus.  Because people with lupus take HCQ daily, clinicians tried it and found it improved recovery.  This is perhaps not unexpected.  Fifteen years ago, following the first SARS outbreak, this class of drugs halted the infection and spread of SARS-Cov-1 coronavirus in cell culture.  Ten years ago, a world expert on coronaviruses, Dr. Ralph S. Baric, showed that zinc, together with substances that facilitate its cell entry (“ionophores”), block the SARS Cov-1 coronavirus virus from reproducing.

COVID-19 is a multi-phasic disease, so timing is everything.  The virus infects human cells through a lock-and-key mechanism: the key on the virus (surface spikes) opens the lock on the human cell (ACE2 receptor).  Once inside, the virus hijacks the cell machinery to exponentially churn out copies of itself.  Once assembled, these viruses burst from the cell and enter the bloodstream, wreaking further havoc as the immune system mounts a response and a cascade of pernicious effects manifest.

A three-ingredient cocktail of the antiviral, zinc (Zn), along with azithromycin (AZM) and HCQ, inhibits several features of early infection.  HCQ makes the lock on the human cell less accessible; it prevents the viral key from being cut to fit, so to speak; it acts like a gun, shooting the zinc bullet into the cell to disrupt the genetic copy machine; and it prevents viruses that make it into the cell from reproducing further, short-circuiting disease progression.  (AZM may prevent secondary bacterial infection and may be indirectly antiviral.)

If the viral cascade gets out of hand, the immune system mounts a punishing counter assault, causing inflammatory damage from “friendly fire”; minute blood clots also begin to develop, devastating the lungs and other organs.  Thus, the Zn/AZM/HCQ regimen is most effective when used early, and other approaches, such as high-dose antioxidants, steroids, and anticoagulants become necessary in later phases.

We are six months into the pandemic.  Because the Zn/AZM/HCQ regimen is cheap, takes only about 5 days, and study patients can be enrolled and monitored by their personal physicians, there is no reason for a randomized, prospective study on early treatment not to have been completed by now.  But while everyday doctors compile mounting evidence for this early approach, the medical establishment dismisses the data as anecdotal while blocking the evidence from accumulating.  NIH recommends against use of HCQ and AZM beyond clinical trials and State pharmacy boards have refused to fill doctors’ prescriptions.  No one explains why a chloroquine drug on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, routinely administered to the military and to travelers for malaria prevention, and taken daily by patients with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, cannot be used safely for COVID-19 under a doctor’s care.

Meanwhile, Remdesivir, an orphan drug looking for a disease, is declared the standard of care by a panel whose members have financial ties to its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences.  Treatment that failed to produce a statistically significant reduction in mortality, but reduced hospital stays from 15 to 11 days on average, is declared a “game changer”; yet a hospital study of HCQ that statistically halved the death rate after correcting for steroid use is “flawed”.  The average person who contracts COVID is left with supportive care – the equivalent of “take two Tylenols® and call me in the morning” – until sick enough to be hospitalized.

All drugs have contraindications.  The patient’s medical history and the dose, frequency, and duration of treatment determine whether the drug can be used safely and effectively.  When administered along with zinc and AZM as soon as symptoms arise, HCQ may help people with COVID-19 to avoid serious illness.  Most of the studies that show mixed or negative results with HCQ failed to include zinc and involved hospitalized patients who were already very sick.  Some reports were egregious.  In one, only the sickest patients received HCQ; in another, toxic doses led the study to be partially halted; and another, published in the prestigious journal, The Lancet, was exposed as a fraud by a member of America’s Frontline Doctors and retracted.

Cracks are appearing in the dam.  Flagrant censorship has resurfaced the controversy.  Following public outcry, pharmacy boards have been overruled.  Lawsuits demanding that the FDA remove restrictions on HCQ are being expedited.  Multinational groups are calling for the requisite prospective studies.  And the outspoken Yale epidemiologist, Dr. Harvey Risch, is advancing the cause of early outpatient treatment, while responding vigorously to facile critiques.

Americans are questioning the concerted effort to suppress a regimen of cheap, readily available medicines in favor of expensive and unproven experimental drugs and vaccines.  Will taking two simple drugs and a nutritional supplement prove as effective as the biological science and clinical experience suggest?  The story is not over.  Stay tuned.

Author’s credit:  Dr. Hutchins is a toxicologist with an interest in public health.

Unless the source is cited, quoted, or paraphrased with attribution, any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the people, organizations, or institutions the author may or may not be affiliated with in a personal or professional capacity. The author’s views are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, institution, or individual.

Editor’s Note: The quotes herein cite the original July 28, 2012 Facebook post. The text of the post has been amended since, although the date remains unchanged.