Trump slammed by autoimmune patient he's put in a 'nightmarish situation'

[kpete]

“For 14 years, since I was diagnosed at 26, I have taken hydroxychloroquine to treat Sjogren’s syndrome, a systemic disease that causes crushing fatigue and joint pain, among other symptoms, and can damage the kidneys, liver, lungs, nerves and skin,” wrote Torres. “The president first began touting hydroxychloroquine in March, when he called it a potential “game-changer” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. This predictably led to shortages, as doctors and others worried about the virus began stockpiling the drug. Those of us who take the medication for Sjogren’s and other autoimmune conditions, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, were left counting down our pills as we struggled to obtain refills.”

..............

After the FDA declined to recommend hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus and another drug, remdesivir, showed promise, Torres wrote, “I thought the coverage of these developments would be a game-changer for me. But then Monday, despite everything, Trump told reporters: ‘A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it’ — meaning hydroxychloroquine. He heard a lot of ‘good stories’ about it, he said, and consulted with the White House physician.”

............

“Mr. President, I don’t feel good,” wrote Torres. “My new normal is one of frustration and unnecessary stress, which leaves me vulnerable to worsening health and perhaps could even trigger another autoimmune condition. Colleagues and friends of my family have gotten sick or lost relatives. I don’t know if I will live through this virus; I would clearly face real risks if I were to contract it.”

“With hydroxychloroquine receding from the news in the past few weeks, I thought I could give myself a break from thinking about this nightmarish situation for a quick minute,” concluded Torres. “But with this president it seems there is no rest.”

more:
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/trump-slammed-by-autoimmune-patient-hes-put-in-a-nightmarish-situation/

[crickets]

1. More coverage needs to be given to hydroxychloroquine shortages.

It is so selfish and irresponsible for trump to push this drug. He is pushing it for financial reasons, he is unqualified to make any drug recommendations at all, he is endangering lives by flogging a drug now found to be virtually useless in treating COVID-19, and he is causing shortages for those who take the drug for legitimate reasons. Yes, Nancy's shade was hilarious (seriously, she is the best) but media should pivot past that to cover the genuine harm trump's BS is causing.

[still_one]

2. Take home message, vote as though your life depended upon it

because it does

[sheshe2]

3. +1000

[stillcool]

4. He's asking the right person...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/internal-documents-reveal-team-trumps-chloroquine-master-plan
Forget testing, ventilators, and PPE. Donald Trump’s big plan to beat COVID-19 involved distributing millions of doses of an unproven drug. Behind the scenes, senior administration officials pushed hard to bend the rules and back up his boasts.
BY KATHERINE EBAN

APRIL 24, 2020
On the afternoon of Saturday, April 4, President Trump stood at the White House podium and escalated his marketing blitz on behalf of hydroxychloroquine, hyping the old malaria drug’s alleged promise in treating COVID-19, as well as his administration’s success in acquiring huge amounts of it.

“We have millions and millions of doses of it—29 million to be exact,” he said, as the official tally of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. topped 260,000 and governors across the country pleaded for federal support to acquire tests, ventilators, and protective gear for health care workers. “We’re just hearing really positive stories, and we’re continuing to collect the data.” That evening, according to emails obtained by Vanity Fair, Trump’s political appointees would ramp up the pressure on career health officials to make good on the president’s extravagant promises, despite clear warnings from federal clinicians about the risks and unproven benefits of chloroquine-based treatments for COVID-19.
******************************************************
And yet, just hours after that April 4 press conference, White House officials pushed ahead with a massive behind-the-scenes pressure campaign on the government’s top health officials to deliver huge amounts of chloroquine drugs to just about anyone who wanted them, according to documents reviewed by Vanity Fair. That night, Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, sent an email with the subject line “Hydroxychloroquine” to a group including FEMA administrator Pete Gaynor, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response Robert Kadlec, and Navy Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, who leads a supply-chain task force at FEMA.

The email read:

WH call. Really want to flood Ny and NJ with treatment courses. Hospitals have it. Sick out patients don’t. And can’t get. So go through distribution channels as we discussed. If we have 29 million perhaps send a few million ASAP? WH wants follow up in AM.

We can get a lot more of this. Right Bob? Millions per week?