The Chaos Report

“What have you got to lose?”, he asks…

Here’s what:

• It’s flooding doctors and hotlines with phone calls from patients who are not ill, perhaps hindering access for people who are sick. Especially since the President Sunday suggested people consider taking Hydroxychloroquine preventively, not only if they’re sick.
• It’s creating priorities for those working directly under the President to get that drug distributed quickly in all corners of the country, again perhaps at the expense of getting other drugs or materials out as quickly or in great number, which may eventually have more of an impact.
• It’s taking attention away from other drugs and therapies that may be more effective.

There are a lot of other drugs out there that are being tried and used off-label that aren’t top of mind for the President.

And that’s the question we wish someone would ask the President: why are you so unceasingly focused on touting this one drug? (Or two, perhaps, if you prescribe it — as the President often suggests — as part of a “cocktail” with Azithromycin, an antibiotic)? Who got in his ear about it?

As we’ve said before, we’re rooting for the President right now. So we hope he’s right. We have, in fact, taken chloroquine before, and other than causing very vivid nightmares every time we took it, it seemed fine.

And we’d like to believe the President’s sole motive is what he says: he just wants to help people.

So maybe we’re too jaded. Because at the same time, it’s hard for us to believe there isn’t some political calculation when he recommends this stuff so vociferously. Because if he turns out to be right, he’s a hero. And how he pushed a “miracle cure” when no one else would, becomes the central narrative for him, when he doesn’t have much to brag about, and even he must know it. Also, if he’s right, it is all you’re going to hear about on Fox, between now and November. If he’s wrong, he’s no worse off than he is now.

Because even Trump must realize he did a lot of stuff wrong, and said a lot of stuff wrong. We came across this Tweet today when we re-read our story “If Trump Truly Believes His Own Tweets, He Should Be Out Doing Rallies“, from less than a month ago:

Yes, Trump closed borders to many travelers from China, which he keeps coming back to. But closing borders and banning foreigners is hardly a bold or unprecedented move for this President.

So, Hydroxychloroquine: what has he got to lose…?