Put the fish tank cleaner down
The other day when he was contradicting Anthony Fauci on chloroquine as a miracle cure for C19 Trump asked “What have you got to lose?”
Your life, would be one answer.
Medical toxicologists and emergency physicians are warning the public against the use of inappropriate medications and household products to prevent or treat COVID-19. In particular, Banner Health experts emphasize that chloroquine, a malaria medication, should not be ingested to treat or prevent this virus.
“Given the uncertainty around COVID-19, we understand that people are trying to find new ways to prevent or treat this virus, but self-medicating is not the way to do so,” said Dr. Daniel Brooks, Banner Poison and Drug Information Center medical director. “The last thing that we want right now is to inundate our emergency departments with patients who believe they found a vague and risky solution that could potentially jeopardize their health.”
But sir, but sir, Trump said what have we got to lose.
A man has died and his wife is under critical care after the couple, both in their 60s, ingested chloroquine phosphate, an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks. Within thirty minutes of ingestion, the couple experienced immediate effects requiring admittance to a nearby Banner Health hospital.
That which cleans out fish tanks probably does nothing salutary to the stomach lining.
It’s the dubious ‘logic’ of all those who reach for snake oil in the absence of actual scientific treatment; failure to treat has known consequences, but that nice man on the telly has something, and we know that people aren’t allowed to lie about such things.
But it’s only the producers, sellers, and prescribers of modern scientific treatment who aren’t allowed to lie. Everyone else can say whatever they want to about quackery, and it becomes caveat emptor.
I was horrified when I heard Trump touting hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a potential “cure”. THe combination causes QT prolongation – which means most of the older patients who already have some kind of cardiovascular issues or diabetes could not have it.
On top of that, the chloroquines can be poisonous – as this terrible story illustrates. I had no idea it was in fish tank cleaner, though. Watch the right-wing press try to spin this as “oh, it wasn’t chloroquine, it was chloroquine phosphate, therefore the president isn’t responsible”. Chloroquine phosphate is chloroquine, as administered to patients. But even if it wasn’t, it’s a distinction without a difference. Someone saw the name and took it, and now they’re dead.