FDA Approves ‘Game Changer’ Drug

Posted on | March 30, 2020 | 1 Comment

On Sunday night, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, drugs often used to treat malaria and recently touted by President Donald Trump as a possible “game-changer” in the fight against the China-originated novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
The United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced in a statement on Sunday that the FDA will allow the drugs to be “donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible,” a Politico report said.
The statement noted that “Sandoz donated 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the stockpile and Bayer donated 1 million doses of chloroquine.”
Trump made it clear weeks ago that his administration would work to fast-track promising drugs like hydroxychloroquine with the FDA, all in an effort to combat COVID-19.
Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is on the same page as President Trump when it comes to the popular anti-malaria drugs, permitting trials of hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, and azithromycin to commence in his state.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.) As I mentioned Sunday, an Orthodox Jewish doctor in New York publicized his own results using chloroquine and azithromycin via Sean Hannity, who in turn went directly to Vice President Mike Pence — how influential was that in putting pressure on the FDA to fast-track this approval?

Glenn Reynolds notices that Politico asserts there is “scant evidence” for the effectiveness of chloroquine, despite the actual evidence from French studies, which are not “scant” at all. It’s almost as if journalists were suffering from an “Orange Man Bad” disease, or something.

Category: Health Care

‘A Society of Emasculated Liars’

Posted on | March 30, 2020 | 1 Comment

In his 2001 book, Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass, the British psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple observed:

In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better.
When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity.
To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.

One must actively resist the propaganda of political correctness or else you become complicit in it and compromised by it. This morning, I decided to turn the TV to MSNBC and watch Morning Joe, which offers an example, in the person of Joe Scarborough, of what happens to people who become part of such propaganda machines. There was a time — and it wasn’t really that long ago — when Morning Joe was not a Democratic Party propaganda operation, but the Obama years took their toll on Scarborough and he became just another operative. Something similar can be observed in the cases of Jennifer Rubin and Robert Costa at the Washington Post. There are some organizations with which no honest person would ever wish to be associated, and the Washington Post is such an organization. But I digress . . .

What called my attention to the above quote from Theodore Dalrymple was that it was quoted in the comments on my latest column:

As late as March 11, Mayor Bill de Blasio was still telling New York City residents to carry on life as normal: “If you’re not sick, you should be going about your life.” Two days earlier, Italy had announced a national lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and cases were already beginning to appear in New York, but de Blasio did not close the city’s schools until March 15.
Now that New York City has become the epicenter of this pandemic — more than 32,000 cases as of Sunday, with nearly 700 deaths — Mayor de Blasio’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak appears astonishingly irresponsible. Jim Geraghty of National Review has compiled a timeline of how New York City officials dealt with the crisis, and their recklessness seems mind-boggling in hindsight. Early on, their main concern was that the virus might discourage city residents from attending Chinese New Year celebrations. “I want to remind everyone to enjoy the parade and not change any plans due to misinformation spreading about #coronavirus,” the city’s health commissioner Oxiris Barbot said in a Feb. 9 tweet, promoting festivities in Chinatown. . . .

Read the rest at The American Spectator.

Category: Donald Trump, Media Bias

Rule 5 Sunday: Elle MacPherson

Posted on | March 29, 2020 | 2 Comments

– compiled by Wombat-socho

Behold, an Australian bombshell who became internationally famous thanks to being frequently featured on the cover of Elle magazine, to say nothing of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues.

“The Body” displaying most of hers in a tasteful fashion.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny leads off with Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #937, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. At Animal Magnetism, it’s Rule Five Warmer Weather Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL directs our attention to Lady Gaga, Karin Bohn, Renee Fleming, Nina Stemme, Das Rheingold, the rather sexy President of Slovakia, Shi Zhengli, Orion Carloto, Jane Eaglen, Swing In Place With PMJ, Gotterdammerung, Gina Royale, and Annette Dasch.

This week’s haul from A View From The Beach includes A Stranger Thing – Winona Ryder, Fish Pic Friday – Yellowtail Snapper, Believe All Women, But Not #HerToo, Thursday Tans, Russiagate: It’s Dead, Jim!, Wet Wednesday, Not Available Locally, Alas, Sex and the WuFlu, Muddy Monday, Palm Sunday and I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).

Proof Positive’s Vintage Babe of the Week is Betty Grable (and her million dollar legs!) and Red Pilled Jew has some slit skirts for your edification.

Thanks to everyone for their luscious linkagery!

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Category: Rule 5

Trump Was RIGHT: Chloroquine Works Against Coronavirus, Doctor Says

Posted on | March 29, 2020 | Comments Off on Trump Was RIGHT: Chloroquine Works Against Coronavirus, Doctor Says

An Orthodox Jewish doctor in New York has become internationally famous after announcing that the anti-malarial drug chloroquine, touted as a coronavirus treatment by President Trump, has proven effective in treating hundreds of patients. Dr. Vladimir Zelenko publicized his trial of the drug in an unusual manner — by emailing Sean Hannity.

Dr. Zelenko was interviewed on Hannity’s radio program Monday afternoon, and by Monday night, Vice President Mike Pence was on Fox News responding to what Dr. Zelenko had told Hannity:

Mr. Vice President, I’m holding up a letter. I’m going to read from it from a second, from a doctor in the New York area, and if I may read from it — he has now worked with his — his associates and he has a regimen.
Hydroxychloroquine, 200 milligrams twice a day, five days. Azithromycin, 500 milligrams once a day, five days. Zinc sulfate, 220 milligrams once a day for five days. This is what he has seen, him and his team have now treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel, it was an area of New York that was hit particularly hard and another 150 patients and other New York areas.
His results, we have had zero deaths, zero hospitalizations, zero intubations, zero.

This is anecdotal, and Hannity’s medical experts were cautious in assessing the scientific validity of Dr. Zelenko’s claims:

While it would be a mistake to assume this to be a “silver bullet” based on the claims of a single physician, the combination of chloroquine and azithromycin (an antibiotic) is now being used to treat more coronavirus patients around the country. President Trump’s role in calling attention to this treatment has been controversial, but so far it appears that he has been vindicated, and lives are being saved as a result.

Category: Donald Trump, Health Care

FMJRA 2.0: Back In The Saddle For One Night Only!

Posted on | March 28, 2020 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Coming to you from the somewhat luxurious, reasonably priced, and mostly empty Ramada St. George, it’s the FMJRA! I’m here bashing away at the keyboard with a bottle of wine because some other plans fell through in an amusing fashion, and that’s okay – at least I’m out of the barracks for a night, even if it means I’ll receive a Note of Disapproval from the largely-absent staff at USVets. So it goes in the time of Corona-chan.

#Coronavirus: The ‘Grisly Calculus’
EBL

Gay Men Spread Chinese Virus at Miami’s South Beach ‘Winter Party’ Festival
EBL

7 p.m. ET Tonight: The Other Podcast Surrenders to ‘Yellow Peril’ Hysteria
EBL

Madness: Teachers Accuse NYC Schools of Covering Up Chinese Coronavirus Threat
357 Magnum
EBL

#Coronavirus: The Italian Catastrophe and the Pandemic Danger to America
First Street Journal
EBL

Nancy Pelosi Blocks $1.8 Trillion #Coronavirus Bill. Why? Abortion!
A View From The Beach
EBL

Finally: Encouraging News From Italy
A View From The Beach

Democrats and Their ‘Friends’
EBL

Rule 5 Monday: Hayley Atwell
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
Proof Positive
EBL
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 03.23.20
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL
A View From The Beach

‘Chinese Bat Soup Flu’ Update
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

New Yorkers Are Infecting America
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.25.20 (Morning Edition)
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.25.20 (Evening Edition)
Proof Positive
EBL

Joe Biden’s Sadly Obvious Mental Decline
EBL

Guess Who Was on TV Last Night?
EBL

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Bedlam) Shows Why You Should Never Vote Democrat
EBL

As If You Needed Another Reason Never to Vote for Democrats Again …
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.27.20 (Afternoon Edition)
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.27.20 (Evening Edition)
Proof Positive
EBL

Top linkers for the week ending March 27:

EBL (20)
(tied) A View From The Beach, Proof Positive, & 357 Magnum (6 each)

Thanks to everyone for the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

A Curse Be Upon Them: NY Times Blames America’s Christianity for #Coronavirus

Posted on | March 28, 2020 | 2 Comments

The New York Times is published by atheist perverts who hate America, and who have covered themselves in disgrace for decades. They forfeited whatever credibility they still had when they refused to return the Pulitzer they got for Walter Duranty’s Stalinist propaganda during the Soviet “show trial” era, and their irresponsible reporting about the Duke University rape hoax helped incite a campus firestorm that, among other things, radicalized Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

Now, however, the New York Times has blasphemed against the Most High, and has viciously attacked God’s people, in an op-ed column blaming Christians for the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak:

The argument, by journalist and author Katherine Stewart, is that because religious voters supported Trump, that means he governs without regard for science.
Stewart also claims that Republicans, more than Democrats, are likely to deny science.
In her op-ed, titled “The Road to Coronavirus Hell Was Paved by Evangelicals,” she writes:

Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown.
At least since the 19th century, when the proslavery theologian Robert Lewis Dabney attacked the physical sciences as “theories of unbelief,” hostility to science has characterized the more extreme forms of religious nationalism in the United States.

She then goes on to provide several quotes from pastors who pushed back against the idea of closing their churches.
Stewart admits: “By all accounts, President Trump’s tendency to trust his gut over the experts on issues like vaccines and climate change does not come from any deep-seated religious conviction.”
But she adds: “But he is perfectly in tune with the religious nationalists who form the core of his base.”

Putting aside, for now, the partisan bias involved — Ms. Stewart and the New York Times are only against religion when it gives them an opportunity to attack Republicans — what of their effrontery in defaming the 19th-century Presbyterian theologian R.L. Dabney? They might as well have dragged down in the mud the names of Knox, Calvin and Luther, and indeed all of the Apostles, as no honest student of the Bible could ever have disputed Dabney’s faithfulness to the Gospel.

You would never see the New York Times smearing Muslims this way, and indeed they would be the first to scream “Islamophobia!” at anyone who dared mention the many Muslim beliefs and practices that liberals might otherwise find objectionable. Likewise, you won’t find any criticism of the (alleged) Catholicism of Andrew Cuomo or Nancy Pelosi in the New York Times. It is only those Christians who vote Republican whose faith is routinely impugned by the New York Times.

By the way, do you know how it was that Katherine Stewart came to be an “expert” on the Religious Right? A Boston native, she moved to California where the local public school had a Bible study club, as approved by the Supreme Court in its 2001 decision Good News Club v. Milford Central School. Stewart became so angry that such a club existed that she wrote an entire book about this vast right-wing conspiracy “to convert children to fundamentalist Christianity.”

There is a specific set of “fundamentalist” beliefs that the Left finds objectionable. To believe in Sola Scriptura — the authority of the Bible — is objectionable to the Left, since a Bible-based faith contradicts the moral relativism and man-made authority the Left prefers.

Supposedly, the Bible is “anti-science,” and therefore Christians are to blame for the spread of coronavirus in the United States. This argument fails to explain, of course, why the Chinese in Wuhan were eating bats, a practice specifically condemned by the Bible (Deuteronomy 12:18).

This column by Katherine Stewart (@kathsstewart on Twitter) is the point of no return. By publishing this column, the New York Times has finally — unmistakably and irrevocably — declared war on God. Let us pray that the Almighty will pour out His undiluted wrath upon them. Let them go bankrupt and be utterly obliterated. Pray to God that this destruction should come upon them suddenly, “as a thief in the night.”

Selah.

Category: Health Care, New York Times, Religion, Science

Italy Takes a Turn for the Worse

Posted on | March 28, 2020 | 1 Comment

After five days of apparent improvement, Italy’s coronavirus outbreak worsened Friday, when the country reported more than 900 deaths:

The number of people who have died of novel coronavirus in Italy has risen by 969 in the past day, the biggest daily jump since the crisis began.
The total number of deaths now stands at 9,134, according to Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, more than any other country.
There has been an increase of 4,401 coronavirus cases in the past day, Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said.
The total number of recorded coronavirus cases in Italy, including deaths and those who recovered, now stands at 86,498.
The 969 figure includes 50 deaths that were not included in Thursday’s figures. The previous biggest spike in deaths came last Saturday, when there was an increase of 793.
Since the beginning of the crisis in Italy, 51 doctors who tested positive for the disease have died, the Italian Association of Doctors said Friday. Of those doctors, 32 were working in Lombardy, the Italian region worst-hit by coronavirus.
A total of 6,414 health care workers have been infected as of Thursday, according to the Italian National Institute of Health.

The previous highest number of daily coronavirus deaths in Italy was 793 last Saturday, and by Monday, they had fallen to 601. However, the daily number of new Wuhan virus cases, which also peaked last Saturday at 6,557, has since remained below that mark. Italy’s caseload is still very high, and increasing, as the number of new cases reported daily greatly exceeds the number of patients reported as recovered from the disease.

Meanwhile, in the United States, 18,691 new cases of Chinese coronavirus were reported Friday, and 401 deaths. Here are the latest state-by-state numbers, according to CNN:

New York ………………….. 44,635 (519 deaths)
New Jersey …………………. 8,825 (108 deaths)
California …………………….. 3,801 (78 deaths)
Washington …………………. 3,723 (175 deaths)
Michigan ……………………… 3,657 (92 deaths)
Massachusetts ……………… 3,240 (35 deaths)
Florida ………………………… 3,192 (45 deaths)
Illinois …………………………. 3,026 (34 deaths)
Louisiana ……………………… 2,746 (119 deaths)
Pennsylvania ……………….. 2,218 (22 deaths)
Georgia ……………………….. 2,198 (65 deaths)

The top 10 states account for 81,261 cases, which is 80% of the total of 101,241 coronavirus cases reported in the United States. Two states, New York and New Jersey, account for more than half the U.S total. The situation in New York is bad and getting worse:

More than a third of the country’s cases are in New York — which has been in a partial lockdown for a week as officials try to slow the spread of the virus and hospitals scramble to keep up with the patients streaming in.
The state’s healthcare system is already overwhelmed. One hospital was forced to create a makeshift morgue and another reported 13 patient deaths in 24 hours. New York and its National Guard are now assembling four 1,000-bed temporary, overflow hospitals in existing buildings.

If you look at the state-by-state numbers, you’ll see that, as a percentage of population, the Wuhan virus has had much less impact in California and Florida, compared to New York, while Texas, with only 1,731 cases, has been particularly fortunate thus far. Dig down a little deeper in the numbers, and you discover that in Florida, for example, their COVID-19 cases have been highly concentrated in three South Florida counties — Dade (869), Broward (631) and (241) — which combined account for nearly 55% (1,741) of the statewide total of cases. These counties have a combined population of about 6 million, which is less than 30% of Florida’s total population of about 21 million. What this suggests is that people living in Florida’s urban centers face substantially higher risk from the virus, and this is probably true nationwide.

Of course, there is no such thing as 100% safety, but during a pandemic of contagious disease, rural life is much safer than city life.