And speaking of hydroxychloroquine…
…which we haven’t done in quite some time – I thought I’d update.
Months ago I searched for clinical trials – which are usually considered the gold standard research on such things – and found a few but they all used a protocol for the drug that didn’t fit the recommendations of those who felt it to be useful. For example, the drug was used alone rather than with zinc, or it was used for people who were gravely ill, or it was used in the wrong dose for the wrong amount of time. I was looking for research that included zinc, that had the correct dose (or close to it, anyway), and that used subjects who were not yet gravely ill (because hydroxychloroquine’s advocates said it was not useful in such patients).
Looking again for a clinical trial with those characteristics. I searched in several different ways but could not find one. I didn’t spend hours and hours on it, so perhaps I missed something, but I did spend a fair amount of time on it. At this point, it may soon be moot as more and more of the population becomes vaccinated. So my curiosity may remain unsatisfied.
However, I did find several other fairly new studies which don’t appear to be clinical trials but seem (in my admittedly quick perusal) to be fairly well-designed and also to have at least some of the looked-for criteria. See this (note, though, that these patients were sick enough to be hospitalized at the outset of the study):
During the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, Frontera and her colleagues at four hospitals in New York City collectively decided to see if adding zinc to their treatment regimens helped novel coronavirus patients. The physicians knew they needed something to help the patients absorb high enough levels of zinc to be effective, and at the time, many of their patients happened to be taking just the thing: hydroxychloroquine…
One thousand patients received a treatment of hydroxychloroquine and zinc and 2,500 (controls) did not. Exclusion criteria included death or discharge within 24 hours, comfort-care status, admittance into another clinical trial, and treatment that included an IL-6 inhibitor or Remdesivir. Patients in the treatment group received 400 mg of zinc gluconate by mouth on day one of the trial and 200 mg twice a day thereafter…
The researchers found a 24 percent reduction in mortality in the patients that received zinc with hydroxychloroquine compared with controls.
Here is the text of the study.
Here’s another study, this time with non-hospitalized patients. However, it seems to only involve hydroxychloroquine; I see no mention of zinc:
Among 1274 outpatients with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection 7.6% were prescribed hydroxychloroquine. In a 1067 patient propensity matched cohort, 21.6% with outpatient exposure to hydroxychloroquine were hospitalized, and 31.4% without exposure were hospitalized. In the primary multivariable logistic regression analysis with propensity matching there was an association between exposure to hydroxychloroquine and a decreased rate of hospitalization from COVID-19 (OR 0.53; 95% CI, 0.29, 0.95).
This study appears to involve both hydroxychloroquine and zinc (plus the antibiotic azithromycin) in patients who had what was considered “severe” COVID but were not yet hospitalized:
The aim of this study was to describe the outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the outpatient setting after early treatment with zinc, low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin (triple therapy) dependent on risk stratification. This was a retrospective case series study in the general practice setting. A total of 141 COVID-19 patients with laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the year 2020 were included. The main outcome measures were risk-stratified treatment decision and rates of hospitalisation and all-cause death. A median of 4 days [interquartile range (IQR) 3–6 days; available for n = 66/141 patients] after the onset of symptoms, 141 patients (median age 58 years, IQR 40–67 years; 73.0% male) received a prescription for triple therapy for 5 days. Independent public reference data from 377 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the same community were used as untreated controls. Of 141 treated patients, 4 (2.8%) were hospitalised, which was significantly fewer (P < 0.001) compared with 58 (15.4%) of 377 untreated patients [odds ratio (OR) = 0.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06–0.5]. One patient (0.7%) in the treatment group died versus 13 patients (3.4%) in the untreated group (OR = 0.2, 95% CI 0.03–1.5; P = 0.12). No cardiac side effects were observed. Risk stratification-based treatment of COVID-19 outpatients as early as possible after symptom onset using triple therapy, including the combination of zinc with low-dose hydroxychloroquine, was associated with significantly fewer hospitalisations.
Make of it what you will.
These studies are not definitive, but they certainly favor the use of the drug regimen. One thing I do know is that the early politicization of this drug was extremely counterproductive to finding out the truth.
Though not clinical trials, all those studies appear to have been conducted by medical experts. But the new rule, as Cuomo has told us, is that we cannot trust experts.
I know it’s hard to keep up.
The truth depends on timing.
Over the last few years I’ve taken the antiviral for shingles 3 times successfully. It is like Tamiflu in that there is a window of opportunity. This is my understanding of the HCQ debacle. Whether it was intentional from the top is debatable. Lots of money has been made, but worse lots of people have died too. This is a well-written article on the subject:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/hydroxychloroquine-morality-tale
For those still interested in reading scientific papers about the treatment of COVID-19. I’d like to recommend the database compiled by the group @CovidAnalysis.
This is an anonymous group of PhD scientists and researchers. They’ve decided not to reveal their identities due to attacks on the reputations of scientists who don’t precisely mimic the latest Progressive doctrine on COVID-19 treatment. In some cases, the Progressives have even threatened scientists’ lives.
The database is easily searched and requires no special expertise to use.
The link is c19study.com.
P.S. The database’s front page includes this introductory statement:
“Database of all HCQ COVID-19 studies. 239 studies, 172 peer reviewed, 197 comparing treatment and control groups. Submit updates/corrections below. HCQ is not effective when used very late with high dosages over a long period (RECOVERY/SOLIDARITY), effectiveness improves with earlier usage and improved dosing. Early treatment consistently shows positive effects. Negative evaluations typically ignore treatment time, often focusing on a subset of late stage studies.”
Ivermectin (another widely prescribed generic anti-parasitic) appears to be even better than HCQ at dealing with Coviddoom.
See: https://osf.io/wx3zn/
The video in this Chris Martinsen post has good review of the above paper’s findings for non-scientist types: tinyurl.com/4d7cojyz
To clarify my comment above, the database of papers describing COVID-19 treatments (c19study.com) isn’t limited to studies of hydroxychloroquine.
The database has subsets for each of the following treatments:
Ivermectin, Vitamin D, HCQ, Vitamin C, Zinc, PVP-I, REGN, LY-CoV, Remdesevir.
For example, the paper cited by “Soviet of Washington” is included in the Ivermectin section of the database (https://c19ivermectin.com/).
On a more personal(?) note, at the beginning of the pandemic, I’ll confess I had a slightly uncomfortable intellectual enthusiasm for observing how scientists would respond to such an important problem. To say that the results have been mixed would be generous. The hydroxychloroquine issue has been an abject failure for scientists.
I thought I was already too cynical about the politicization of science. In fact, I was still too naive. This doesn’t bode well for the future of science in this country. China will clearly take over the leadership role in science, so it will be highly politicized, and will serve the new international surveillance state system led by China. In fact, from the Chinese government’s point of view, COVID-19 has been a great success. Among other things, it has revealed many weaknesses in what was one of our few remaining strengths.
Cornflower
I have been looking at ivermectin for some weeks. I am taking it now for prophylaxis, as are all adults in my close family . I am gobsmacked at the number of people who simply refuse to consider the substantial number of studies on the cheap ,safe , and effective drug. One stated all these studies are from other countries. As if only Americans do science.
Another said that’s just too easy , the government wouldn’t lie about this.
One individual finally stopped , and looked at Dr Pierre Korys testimony before the senate. He said afterwards , where did you get this stuff.
Keith – the key word is “cheap”. Big Pharma doesn’t want this. Know this and much becomes clear. Cui Bono or Who Benefits.
There will much more acceptance of these therapeutics because the mission was accomplished. Orange Man Bad is gone and they have to do something to have the Dim One not look so bad.
@Cornflour:
The global responses to Covid-19 have revealed all manner of weaknesses and failure points in every society. Rest assured that bad actors will have been and are working overtime on distilling lessons and planning targeted actions based upon lessons learned.
On the plus side, were you to end up subject to a Chinese Dystopia, it would not encourage your grandsons to become tattooed and body pierced where the sun don’t shine granddaughters and imprison and dispossess you for objecting.
Furthermore, the Han in the Street can sleep soundly at night secure in the knowledge that his government is composed of people who look like him, think like him, and don’t wish to replace him with foreigners and erase his heritage. Now ain’t that something?
The great irony is that for all our supposed Western freedoms there are far fewer intellectual hobbles and strictures in the practice of science and technology in China. What does trouble me is that they are utterly amoral. If it can be done, it will be done. Plenty of Uighurs (for now, at least) to experiment on, you know.
You Neo are what the founders meant by “freedom of the press.” No one else distills this stuff like you do. We appreciate your inectual curiosity. Thank you.
“One thing I do know is that the early politicization of this drug was extremely counterproductive to finding out the truth.” neo
With the help of Big Pharma, the CDC, WHO and dr.’s Fauci and Blix, the democRats have the deaths of tens of thousands upon their hands. By any objective calculus, that qualifies as mass murder.
On January 1, 2021, the American Medical Journal published an article recommending a protocol for treatment of out patients with Covid-19 symptoms. Basically they are recommending the HCQ, ZN, Z-pak protocol.
One of the things I liked about the article was that they recognized that, while the double blind, randomized study was the gold standard, the swiftness and deadliness of the pandemic did not lend itself well to the double blind study model.
Here’s a sample:
“Most patients who arrive to the hospital by emergency medical services with COVID-19 do not initially require forms of advanced medical care.2 Once hospitalized, approximately 25% require mechanical ventilation, advanced circulatory support, or renal replacement therapy. Hence, it is conceivable that some, if not a majority, of hospitalizations could be avoided with a treat-at-home first approach with appropriate telemedicine monitoring and access to oxygen and therapeutics.3
As in all areas of medicine, the large randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel group clinical trial in appropriate patients at risk with meaningful outcomes is the theoretical gold standard for recommending therapy. These standards are not sufficiently rapid or responsive to the COVID-19 pandemic.4 One could argue the results of definitive trials were needed at the outset of the pandemic, and certainly are needed now with more than 1 million cases and 500,000 deaths worldwide.5 Because COVID-19 is highly communicable, many ambulatory clinics do not care for patients in face-to-face visits, and these patients are commonly declined by pharmacies, laboratories, and imaging centers. On May 14, 2020, after about 1 million cases and 90,000 deaths in the United States had already occurred, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it was launching an outpatient trial of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin in the treatment of COVID-19.6 A month later, the agency announced it was closing the trial because of the lack of enrollment with only 20 of 2000 patients recruited.7 No safety concerns were associated with the trial. This effort serves as the best current working example of the lack of feasibility of outpatient trials for COVID-19. It is also a strong signal that future ambulatory trial results are not imminent or likely to report soon enough to have a significant public health impact on clinical outcomes.8
If clinical trials are not feasible or will not deliver timely guidance to clinicians or patients, then other scientific information bearing on medication efficacy and safety needs to be examined. Cited in this article are more than a dozen studies of various designs that have examined a range of existing medications. Thus, in the context of present knowledge, given the severity of the outcomes and the relative availability, cost, and toxicity of the therapy, each physician and patient must make a choice: watchful waiting in self-quarantine or empiric treatment with the aim of reducing hospitalization and death. Because COVID-19 expresses a wide spectrum of illness progressing from asymptomatic to symptomatic infection to fulminant adult respiratory distress syndrome and multiorgan system failure, there is a need to individualize therapy according to what has been learned about the pathophysiology of human SARS-CoV-2 infection.9 It is beyond the scope of this article to review every preclinical and retrospective study of proposed COVID-19 therapy. Hence, the agents proposed are those that have appreciable clinical support and are feasible for administration in the ambulatory setting. SARS-CoV-2 as with many infections may be amenable to therapy early in its course but is probably not responsive to the same treatments very late in the hospitalized and terminal stages of illness.10
For the ambulatory patient with recognized early signs and symptoms of COVID-19, often with nasal real-time reverse transcription or oral antigen testing pending, the following 4 principles could be deployed in a layered and escalating manner depending on clinical manifestations of COVID-19-like illness11 and confirmed infection: 1) reduction of reinoculation, 2) combination antiviral therapy, 3) immunomodulation, and 4) antiplatelet/antithrombotic therapy. Because the results of testing could take up to a week to return, treatment can be started before the results are known. For patients with cardinal features of the syndrome (ie, fever, body aches, nasal congestion, loss of taste and smell, etc.) and suspected false-negative testing, treatment can be the same as those with confirmed COVID-19.11 Future randomized trials are expected to confirm, reject, refine, and expand these principles. In this article, they are set forth in emergency response to the growing pandemic as shown in Figure 1.”
The abstract of the paper is here:
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(20)30673-2/fulltext
Progress that may help if we encounter another such pandemic. In the meantime it can’t hurt to have some HCQ, ZN, and Z-Pak on hand. The vaccinations are underway, but it may be many months before we are out of the woods.
Greg Cochran has something relevant to this today:
https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/lloyd-fredendall/
It’s always like this. The question is as always can we learn and fire incompetents and promote competency?
Given sufficient self- or other-inflicted pain, I’m sure yes. Sadly, I think that the Covid-19 debacle gets us nowhere close to that threshold. And so the idiocy will roll onwards.
Why is it that there are virtually no reports that new active cases have plummeted 80%(!) in the past 3 weeks nationally? Serious cases are now close to 0.2% of active cases when last year in April it was over 3%. The virus is burning itself out rapidly, yet all one hears is more doom and gloom and now 2 masks from Fauci. I know. My questions are somewhat rhetorical. I know the motivation to keep the masses under thumb. But for how long can this publicly available data be ignored?
Cornflour, thanks. What a treasure trove of info!
Hey, I realize. Gateway Pundit.
Still, is there anything to the collapse of ordinary flu numbers?
Somehow masks work for normal flu but not Covid … really?
And didn’t CDC give normal flu a pass this year and decided not to keep stats for the first time in forever?
Does someone have an opinion?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/miracle-23-americans-tested-positive-flu-last-week-compared-14657-cases-reported-last-year-time/
annnnnd while we are talking about Covid and the Complicit Communist Party USA –
https://notthebee.com/article/the-cdc-has-issued-guidelines-for-super-bowl-parties-including-no-cheering-stomping-clapping-or-chanting-and-no-fun
“The CDC during Covid is what happens when you give federal funding to the busybodies who normally make up your homeowner’s association.
….
As usual, their main advice is to just stay home and die alone in isolation and depression. But if you’re some kind of psycho who feels the strange desire to be around other humans for this year’s Super Bowl, you had better FOLLOW ZE RULEZ!
…
As we all know, the biggest danger of getting drunk is that you might take your mask off. You might also drive home drunk and wrap your car around a tree, or pickle your liver. But let’s try to keep things in perspective here, folks! It’s Covid!
Oh, and they also suggest considering just having your party outdoors. I actually think I might try that here in Michigan.”
physicguy (9:15 pm) said: “I know the motivation to keep the masses under thumb. But for how long can this publicly available data be ignored?”
For as long as the consumers of the publicly available data can be kept ignore-ANT.
JimNorCal (10:53 pm) asked: “is there anything to the collapse of ordinary flu numbers?”
Ms. M J R saw something about this on tee vee, to the effect that said collapse is largely due to increased masking up, social distancing, and less human interaction generally. Make of it what you will (or won’t).
The severe negative reaction to hydroxychloroquine has been illuminating. FB deleted one of my postings about it and vitamins a few weeks before I deleted my account. Have seen lefties post condescending remarks about any positive mention of it. Negativity towards it almost seems to be either a mark of being in the in crowd or even a nefarious knowledge that the virus represents opportunities for political power in the march towards “ progress”. Even the common spell check more often than not , flags it as misspelled , but instead of posting a suggestion, offers up “ No replacement found”. And yes, I believe there is a spiritual dimension to the madness.
One stop shopping for All Things Covid —
Not The Bee accesses news around the world to save you time – and has the highest ratio of snark per original text.
https://notthebee.com/article/2-million-australians-forced-nto-five-day-full-lockdown-after-single-hotel-security-guard-tests-positive-for-covid
https://notthebee.com/article/here-we-go-biden-health-advisor-says-new-strain-of-coronavirus-could-lead-to-future-lockdowns
https://notthebee.com/article/faucis-latest-180-on-masks-theres-no-data-that-indicates-that-that-is-going-to-make-a-difference
Companion piece for the Not The Bee post on CDC guidelines for Superbowl Superspreader Events, formerly known as “parties.”
It’s getting harder to tell which one is the satire site.
https://babylonbee.com/news/the-babylon-bee-guide-for-a-safe-super-bowl-lv-party
For Dr F.
https://babylonbee.com/news/experts-predict-humans-will-simply-be-giant-rolling-balls-of-masks-by-2024
“. . . HCQ, ZN, and Z-Pak on hand.”
Sorry, I could not find what these abbreviate. HCQ is clearly hydroxychloroquine, but what are ZN and Z-pak?
And what is the suggested dose of each?
While in Mexico recently, I purchased HCQ for $28 for 12 tablets. In December that was up to $40, and at the end of January back down to $35. This is due to high demand, I was told.
Azithromycin was much less, about a dollar per dose day.
“Ms. M J R saw something about this on tee vee, to the effect that said collapse is largely due to increased masking up, social distancing, and less human interaction generally.”
Yeah, I’m a bit skeptical and wondered if anyone had seen anything that dug deeper. Masking and social distancing. It works for flu because flu spreads by small liquid drops. But it doesn’t help with Covid because Covid spreads by small liquid drops.
Or something.
Regarding Super Bowl parties, really? Is anyone really paying attention to that this year? I recall some pundit saying we could really stick it to The Man by eating a lot of turkey at Tgiving. That’ll show the CDC!
The new hotness is watching football with a group? Color me … unimpressed. Just boycott NFL. They hate you and want to destroy you. IMO
Fauci news—no doubt “only anecdotal”…:
https://visionlaunch.com/bombshell-dr-fauci-knew-chloroquine-was-effective-at-treating-cov-infection-since-2005/
https://twitter.com/NewDayForNJ/status/1349786087481372675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1349786087481372675%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.campidiot.com%2Fviewtopic.php%3Fpid%3D6675168p6675168
Gordon Scott:
ZN is zinc. Z-pak is an antibiotic.
‘The vaccinations are underway, but it may be many months before we are out of the woods.’
But we are very close. Covid positive tests are down 42% in the US in the last three weeks (since Jan 14) and continuing to drop. In my state, Missouri, cases are down 67% over the same time frame and worldwide they are down 28% and continuing to drop. This is during the height of winter for a seasonal virus (when it should still be increasing). Considering that spring will arrive soon with warmer temperatures, the virus is receding with or without the vaccinations which will only hasten Covid19’s journey to become one of our many background level viruses.
https://www.statnews.com/feature/coronavirus/covid-19-tracker/?utm_campaign=cv_landing
‘Somehow masks work for normal flu but not Covid ‘
No, according to a CDC meta-study from March, masks don’t do much against the flu. I suspect, physical distancing might though. That and a combination of misreporting is probably responsible for the collapse of the flu.
Still, some influenza should be passed along at all those dorm parties responsible for so many Covid19 cases…
Hydroxychloroquine, an ionophore, can be replicated by taking over the counter quercetin, another ionophore. This is in essence a carrier that penetrates the cell to allow entry by the zinc. My wife and I take the two in combination daily.
The AMJ abstract that I linked to has a diagram that shows the recommended dosages of the HCQ treatment protocol. If you can’t get HCQ or Ivermectin, then Quercetin, as noted by stu, can be substituted. It’s difficult for people to get prescriptions for HCQ and Ivermectin. But you maybe able to get a prescription from www. AFLDS.com.
“Covid positive tests are down 42% in the US in the last three weeks (since Jan 14) and continuing to drop….”
Biden and his stellar team sure work fast…:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/02/03/who-changes-ct-value-pcr.aspx?ui=a7d70cc9296cf4adf611308334e8812cff43cb35a011b92affd6073e38c0ba63&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20210203&mid=DM793938&rid=1074934180
” … the early politicization of this drug was extremely counterproductive …”
– – – – –
That’s the genteel way of saying that the Never-Trumpers / Deep State / our 3-letter Federal Health agencies deliberately let hundreds of thousands of Americans die because they hated the very notion that this non-Elite outsider had become President. They COULD NOT IN ANY WAY let him be correct about anything.
I hate these people. Truly, truly, HATE them. And there’s
apparently no way short of country-wide violent revolution to get rid of them.
This website is a good resource – https://covid19criticalcare.com/
They list the doses of various supplements depending on the stage of illness. And I concur with Stu about the use of Quercetin as an ionphore to get the zinc into the cell to disrupt the virus replication.
The MedCram Covid videos are great to explain why you should take certain things.
https://www.medcram.com/courses/coronavirus-outbreak-symptoms-treatment
A point about Zinc and the amount you should take – consult with your doctor, but the blood levels of zinc can be tested. I have my D levels tested and I’ll start adding the Zn on a regular basis. Note – I take higher than normal doses of D (10,000 units per day) since that is what my blood work tells me & the doctor concurs. I was taking higher doses of Zn for a while and noted that some persistent skin issues cleared up. We tested for the zinc levels and they were within the range. My doctor did some research on zinc and skin issues and told another patient to start taking higher doses and her issue resolved itself. I’ve cut back on the zinc and the skin problems are reemerging….
BTW, there are some labs which will let you order your own tests and pay a reduced price, in cash. Quest Labs is one of these labs. They do a MMR test which I paid for since I had the measles, mumps in childhood and never had the vaccine. So, the lab test showed I still had great levels of antibodies for MMR so I did not have to take the vaccine.
Don’t forget Plitidepsin:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-plitidepsin-remdesivir-covid-.html
And then there’s this mess:
https://humanevents.com/2021/02/02/the-florida-covid-19-whistleblower-saga-is-a-big-lie/
…and this mystery:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/02/01/962821038/the-mystery-of-indias-plummeting-covid-19-cases
H/T Instapundit
Oh, regarding availability of HCQ: you can interwebz-search “ivermectin 1% injectable for horses” for suppliers. It’s over-the-counter – used for horse and swine de-worming and/or to prevent heartworm in dogs. (There *ARE* some contra-indications; look those up online; eg don’t take if you’re on Warfarin; don’t give to collies.)
NO, you don’t inject it (but you do need a syringe to get it out of the bottle); you squirt it into an ounce or two of water and drink it. (It’s bitter; chug fast.) As with HCQ, take the first dose as soon as you recognize the symptoms of covid; then take a second dose 72 hrs later.
“Even the common spell check more often than not , flags it as misspelled , but instead of posting a suggestion, offers up “ No replacement found”.” – jon baker
I never thought the spell-checkers had a very good AI, even if they aren’t being manipulated, because I frequently use words not in common parlance (nothing as good as superveniently, though!) so I’m used to misfires.
However, in a recent comment I needed to use the word “church” and misspelled it as “chruch” so I hit the autosuggestion to make the correction quickly.
Big surprise — that is such a simple typo, the FIRST suggestion should have been the word I wanted, but no — look at what I got, and then I started testing the program.
chruch – crunch, crouch, crutch
chufch – chinch, chuck, clutch
chuch – chuck, couch, chichi
churc – chum, chord, chuck
curch – crutch, curt, crunch
I find it hard to believe that there is not some algorithmic manipulation deliberately omitting CHURCH from the “possible suggestions” lists.
PS for fun, I ust now tried putting “chruch” in the DDG search bar, and immediately was “asked” if I wanted church’s chicken or churchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints or church militant.
Interesting choices.
I think I’ll go see if there’s any of yesterday’s chicken still in the fridge.
“The question is as always can we learn and fire incompetents and promote competency?” – Zaphod
Interesting post at your link about WWII General Fredendall, and some lessons to be pondered.
Given the host of examples from all of history about what happens when your military leadership goes to seed in peacetime, the moves from the Obama/Biden/Obama administration to fill the US upper ranks with virtue-signalers (even if some do have warrior cred) doesn’t bode well for their next R2P intervention.
And if they keep booting soldiers for wrong-think (not to mention dissing the Space Force), we might find the answer to the old hippie question, “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”
In re the topic of “competence” – someone else recommended a post by Sarah Hoyt elsewhere, and it certainly supports Cochran’s thesis — which is the reason for his Object Lesson about the General —
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2021/01/28/competence-and-take-overs/
“Competence is not intelligence. Competence isn’t even innate ability. Competence is, instead, the ability to focus on and do the job.”
Analysis on why our current government and civil society are so bad at acquiring, using, and rewarding competent people.
Sharon W posted a link to Dr Norman Doidge’s article in Tablet Magazine, about the history of the hydroxychloroquine controversy, that is absolutely excellent.
“Norman Doidge, a contributing writer for Tablet, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author of The Brain That Changes Itself and The Brain’s Way of Healing.” (I’ve read the first book and found it outstanding).
More than highly recommended.
Anyone looking for ivermectin or hydroxi , ask your pharmacist, local hometown pharmacy would be best, what docs are writing script on those drugs. If you know some one in central or South America , they can get it otc
The easiest way is your local farm coop or vet supply. I had heard that some would not sell it, if they thought you were taking it yourself. I had a story ready ,that Santa brought me a pony for Christmas. The young lady at the co op said , “did you know people are taking this for China Flue ?”
I had seen an article touting India’s use of HCQ and Ivermectin– selling prophylactic pacts of ivermectin and the low fatality rate in India. I can’t find that article now, but there was this:
https://principia-scientific.com/the-case-for-hcq-against-covid-19-is-now-overwhelming/