Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

When Trump announced that he is taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19 yesterday, I figure that he may take it back after criticism.  But of course, he doubled down today.  He called the VA study showing HCQ patients did worse than those who did not take it as a bad study by some people against him.  He said there was no down side to taking the medication as discussed with his doctor.  The doctor put out a statement that after discussing with Trump, he feels the risk/benefit ratio make it ok to take the medication.  While I think there are some flaws with the VA study, it is not the only one that is bad for HCQ.  And to believe that the study was rigged is just stupid.  And I don't agree with the risk/benefit ratio as described by his doctor.

HCQ does not kill the virus or prevent it from getting into the body.  It can be what is called an ionophore which means it can help some chemicals get into the cells of our body.  One such chemical is zinc.  Zinc, if it can get into cells, can stop the replication of the coronavirus inside the cell.  Since the virus needs to use the cells to replicate, zinc can stop it from growing to such a viral load that it can overwhelm the body's system. 

So far the only encouraging study of HCQ and zinc working together is that if given shortly after a person is infected, it may stop the virus in its track.  Once it overwhelm the body, HCQ and zinc have not shown to be effective.  By the same token, the combination will have no effect to someone who is not infected since there is no replication to stop!  In this case all you do is getting the side effects without the benefit.

So the risk/benefit ratio for someone who has not been proven to be infected would dictate that you would not take this for prevention.  While zinc at a reasonable dose is probably not dangerous, HCQ has potential very harmful side effect.  It can cause something call increase QT interval on EKG which can lead to dangerous arrhythmia such as ventricular tachycardia and death.  HCQ also can cause severe eye problems.  So to me the risk of this is very high in relation to the benefit.

I think a safer alternative would be to take a herbal med call quercetin which can be an inophore to zinc as well and has little known side effect at regular dose.  Even then I would not take it for prevention since again, there is no replication to stop if you are not infected.

A better prevention method is use of mask.  Today while Trump is doubling down on HCQ at a cabinet meeting.  He and others were not wearing mask.  This is just bad example for the nation:  Taking unproven, dangerous medicine but not doing the easy and prudent thing.