Amid a national controversy over the COVID drug hydroxychloroquine, the Tallahassee Democrat removed reference to the drug from a story that originally highlighted the use of Remdesivir along with hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for a COVID patient at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.
Officials at the Tallahassee Democrat have not responded to TR’s request for a comment.
The story, written by Tallahassee Democrat Sports writer Jim Henry, addressed the recovery experience of Chiles High School Athletic Director Mke Eto who contracted COVID. The original story ran in the sports section of the Tallahassee Democrat on July 27 and when addressing Eto’s recovery stated that “treatments during his hospitalization included supplemental oxygen, steroids, insulin and drugs Remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine.”
The Tallahassee Democrat ran the story again, with some updates on August 5th. However, this time it was on the front page and eliminated the reference to Remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine.
TR recently published a report detailing the COVID treatment protocol used at local hospitals. The article, citing Dean Watson, MD, Chief Integration Officer at TMH, reported that Remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine were being used as treatments for COVID.
Since President Trump addressed the use of hydroxychloroquine, the national debate over the drug has become a political football with competing narratives from the left and the right.
Tallahassee Democrat Removes Reference to Remdesivir and Hydroxychloroquine in Update of Story added by Steve Stewart on
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Bottom line… the manufactured hysteria over the China flu will not cease until the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex has made billions upon billions upon billions… from those gullible enough to believe that an industry that hasn’t found a cure for the common cold, has discovered a (very expensive) cure for a deadly virus created in a lab in China.
So… prepare to stand in long lines to get your cure that may or may not work, at $2000.00 a dose. Oh, and also prepare for your insurance rates to skyrocket.
… carry on
Does it ever get tiring being the smartest guy in the room?
Thank god you post here. I would not be able to see all of these well founded and reasonable theories for myself.
Whither the republic if not for you?
Holifield and Saff. Would not go to either one for medical treatment. Do not get medical advice from any Dr. who posts on social media nor from social media!
Use this link or Google ” Herald Sun – Ivermectin treatment is a ‘real killer of coronavirus ”
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/ivermectin-treatment-is-a-real-killer-of-coronavirus/video/8443d3da6b1e291457fbe16d0d1b613f
To all citizens of Tallahassee,
Watch this video from Australia. Then demand that Ivermectin + Zinc + Doxycycline be available as a treatment for anyone who wants it as a treatment for Covid-19.
Let’s save our city from the mess that the authorities of both political parties have made of the epidemic.
Herald Sun – Ivermectin treatment is a ‘real killer of coronavirus’
More homework for you, which I doubt you will tackle.
https://hcqtrial.com/
It’s still incredibly shocking to me that people actually continue to tout HCQ as a treatment or cure for COVID-19. NO OTHER COUNTRY has embraced HCQ because it does not work effectively for this strain of coronavirus. Period. Listen to the medical professionals. Collectively they know what they’re talking about and do not want anyone taking a drug that could have serious side effects including heart damage.
Also, for those that think it’s the “democrats” trying to block HCQ as a possible treatment/cure because they hate Trump… Why did the FDA revoke the emergency approval of HCQ? Why is the CDC not shouting this from the rooftops? Why has the president not invoked the Defense Production Act to mass produce HCQ? He has the power and resources to do it.
WOW, You’re one of THEM…………. over 300 Doctors swear by it, have prescribed it along with the other two Drugs that goes with it and have saved THOUSANDS. One person takes it and it doesn’t work so it becomes a Devil Drug. Name me just ONE Drug that works on EVERYONE and with out Side Effects. Just ONE.
You say “NO OTHER COUNTRY has embraced HCQ because it does not work” You have obviously relied on gossip from other people who engage in group-think. The link below shows that many countries have used HCQ as an early treatment and by doing so have had much lower mortality rates from Covid-19.
https://twitter.com/niro60487270/status/1272636205142704129/photo/1
Tallahassee is rife with fools.
There is no doubt that the prescription and taking of Hydroxychloroquine has become politicized. If you find yourself with Covid and have underlying health conditions like I have, and there are no cures, then the question is if you will take the drug, hoping that it will help keep you from dying. I doubt anyone will be questioning that if by taking the drug, you will contract the disease of becoming a Republican. I, for one, will take the drug and hope it helps. The rest of you can resist taking the drug and possibly increase the risk of dying. What a great experiment!
The entire country club board of directors at TMH should resign. Small wonder TMH consistently earns grades of “D” or lower for patient safety.
Hydroxychloroquine when used to treat COVID-19 is but one step removed from witchcraft. Does this mean that Halloween has come early to TMH? There is not a single placebo controlled randomized clinical trial that demonstrates that this modern day version of snake oil will save a single life from the ravages of this virus.
Don’t forget that the city of Tallahassee owns TMH and leases it to these incompetents that run it for a dollar a year. Meanwhile our “don’t worry be happy” mayor John Dailey says absolutely nothing as people, especially black people, are dying like flies.
Dr. Hollifield,
I agree with you. I believe that the board at TMH is stacked with politicos and it has been for a very long time. Both hospitals have entrenched themselves with the self-proclaimed movers and shakers known as The Usual Suspects.
The boards at both hospitals are expending their energies on marketing rather than medicine.
Mayor John Dailey has provided no leadership and showed us that he is only interested in marketing himself for his next re-election campaign.
Perhaps the CEO at TMH needs to participate less in marketing junkets with Scott Maddox and take trips to Emory, Duke, and the Mayo Clinic to observe their practices of which to improve upon and have you as the lead.
God bless you Dr. Hollifield!
I lived in the Los Angeles area from 1987until 1993. The Tallahassee Democrat is so much more liberal than the Los Angeles Times. The biggest difference is the op-ed section. The Times posted comments from well known people who were conservatives, thereby, educating the readers on an issue whereas the Democrat “re-educates” them to be narrow-minded liberals.
Good Lord, what ‘controversy’? There have been five randomized trials of the thing and they didn’t find anything of interest. The goalpost moving by the people who want it to work is so absurd; ‘take it with zinc’, ‘it has to be taken early’, ‘take with a zpack’, ‘take with zinc and a zpack’. The ‘controversy’ about hydroxychloroquine is the same as the controversy on if evolution is real, is climate change real, or is the world flat or not. (Yes, yes, no for anyone wondering).
It doesn’t work for COVID. That is what well designed studies have shown.
Hydroxychloroquine works against malaria, which is a parasitic infection.
Hydroxychloroquine is useful in lupus, which is an auto immune disorder.
hydroxychloroquine is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, another immune disorder.
Could someone please explain why they think that this particular build of corona virus, is susceptible to hydroxychloroquine ? Why wouldn’t other types of corona virus be susceptible to hydroxychloroquine? I mean, the common cold is a corona virus. All these decades we have suffered from colds, and no one has thought to try blasting away with hydroxychloroquine when all this time, it had some property that makes it work against corona viruses? Why?
I mean, it it would be one thing if the people breathlessly (so to speak) demanding that we study it once again, or just hand it out like candy, could tell us why, in particular, hydroxychloroquine might work against COVID, while Acyclovir does not. Why might hydroxychloroquine work, but antivirals such as Brivudin, or Valganciclovir won’t work against COVID? But you never hear anything approaching that kind of detail from the proponents that it is all just a big conspiracy to hurt Trump. Why not try to die on the hill over giving everyone Oseltamivir, which at least, is used for influenza? I’d love for someone to try to explain why a drug that is effective at preventing malaria, or treating rheumatoid arthritis might have an prophylactic effect on COVID? What is the proposed mechanism of action? Are we really sure it is better than demon sperm? Have we even tested demon sperm?
“But wait! Henry Ford, something something!” — That study had the treatment group *also* getting steroids, which we know works in extreme cases, and has a plausible mechanism of action! Randomized controlled trials that used hydroxychloroquine as the treatment option show nothing point nothing. There isn’t anything to uncover here.
This whole thing is dumb as rocks.
No, dumb as rocks are people who don’t look into the matter objectively. Look at this twitter feed and then check out the other twitter feeds you can see on it, and the others that you can see on them. There is a plethora of evidence that hydroxychloroquine + zinc works as a prophylactic, as an early treatment, and even helps in mild cases in the hospital, hence TMH’s use of it.
https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher
@James –
The first three links from that twitter feed are:
1) A re-analysis of a randomized, placebo controlled study, that shockingly, found no efficacy for using hydroxychloroquine. That isn’t a study, it is just doing enough post-hoc analysis until they could find something. The site has a bold header reading:
” e-prints posted on arXiv are not peer-reviewed by arXiv; they should not be relied upon without context to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information without consulting multiple experts in the field.”
No kidding. Also, the study they were re-analyzing, did not even use zinc! I guess the person doing extra analysis didn’t get the memo! And I thought it was zinc and zpacks!
The assertion in this review is that the only time they saw an effect was if the drug was given within two days *of exposure* to covid. After two days, the ‘effect’ lost statistical significance. That isn’t two days from *symptoms*, but *exposure*.
2) A chart claiming to come from South Korea, for which, the link is dead. (LOL). But the text provided is one wherein the effect was seen if taken < 5 days since a diagnosis. That's a much different timeframe than exposure. Also, no mention of zinc. If the author was capable of linking to an actual study that might tell us more about the use of zinc. Oh well.
3) something about the Azerbijan data, because we know how good their reporting is.
4) Something claiming the Ivory Coast is approaching herd immunity. LOLOLOL
5) Something claiming that the US has peaked based on how many tests were performed! Yeah, because if we don't test, we don't get positive ratings. That is dangerously dumb.
This is what happens when you get your news from twitter.
Randomized, controlled trials show that it doesn't work. Nothing on this twitter feed changes that.
If you are not going to search through the various twitter feeds that I offered you AND then go to the linked online medical publications AND carefully read them, then try this summary material.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/08/04/an_effective_covid_treatment_the_media_continues_to_besmirch_143875.html
And look at the evidence for both HCQ efficacy, and the Big Pharma/MSM effort to suppress HCQ use, that is on James Todaro’s twitter feed and his Medicine Uncensored website. Todaro unmasked a completely fraudulent anti-HCQ publication in The Lancet and caused it to be retracted.
https://twitter.com/JamesTodaroMD?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://www.medicineuncensored.com/
You anti-HCQ propagandists are responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths, especially of African-Americans, whose lives you claim to defend. Hypocrites of the worst sort is what you are.
@James –
You offered one twitter feed (lol), and the first five things I looked on it were a total joke. Why should I think that there is something reliable deeper down? I mean, just within the first five, there was one analysis showing an effect only if given within two days of *exposure*, and another that shows effect within 5 days of *diagnosis*. Those are wildly different timeframes.
I look at that and say, ‘poor data and / or poor analysis and / or total noise’. You seem to be able to look at two very different results from a temporal perspective and say, ‘it works’. What has convinced you it isn’t statistical noise?
What is the presumed mechanism by which HCQ exerts anti viral effects? Why is it better than other available antivirals? Because a twitter feed say so?
Now you offer a political website. I will note, that link makes no mention of the fact that it needs to be co-administered with zinc, or zpacks, or whatever. Oh well. They also *failed* to note that the studies they so adamantly insist show effect (which they won’t list!) are open and fail to account for other treatment modalities.
I mean, your Real Clear Politics link can’t even get their story straight within the same dame page! From the page you linked:
“At the same time, accumulating data showed remarkable results if hydroxychloroquine were given to patients early, during a seven-day window from the time of first symptom onset. If given during this window, most infections did not progress into the severe, lethal second stage of the disease.” [It should be noted that fatal disease progression seems to be immune mediated, and not the virus per se. Which is why steroids are working]
and
“Two recent, large, early-use clinical trials have been conducted by the Henry Ford Health System and at Mount Sinai showing a 51% and 47% lower mortality, respectively, in hospitalized patients given hydroxychloroquine”
See that! First, they claim it only works when given early. But then, later, *in the same damn article*, they want to jump up and down about lower mortality in people who were already hospitalized!!! (Patients who were getting steroids!) [Not to mention that in Henry Ford; they studied HCQ for patients who were also getting steroids; that isn’t how you test the efficacy of a drug! ]
If you want to go around calling people propagandists, what does it say to you that the link you provided cannot seem to figure out if HCQ works only if given early, or also works as they’d like you to think for the Henry Ford studies, when people were already hospitalized. It can’t be both!
And, of course, another twitter feed from a hack. Who cares?
Look, it is easy to show results in non-controlled studies. What is difficult is showing results in controlled studies, studies where you take effort to make sure that what you saw in open, observational studies, is not the result of bias, confounding inputs, or random chance. When we take those careful steps with HCQ, nothing comes out the other end but white noise.
> You anti-HCQ propagandists are responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths, especially of African-Americans, whose lives you claim to defend.
It is so good to know that you have African Americans in your heart, James. I’m sure they appreciate that.
“It doesn’t work for COVID. That is what well designed studies have shown.”
Tell that to the Thousands of people who took it and recovered faster. Those Studies you talk about were Tilted from the start by Trump Hating leftists other wise, they would have done the Study using those that Took it against those who didn’t take it. After all, THOUSANDS have taken it and recovered, more than the number of people they use in their Studies. They wont do that because they HATE Trump and will not do any thing that will prove him RIGHT.
What flavor of Kool Aid are you drinking? I’d like to have some as well.
Not a physician, however, I don’t think the Henry Ford Study (https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30534-8/fulltext) can be totally dismissed out of hand, however, yes, it was an observational study and did not have the rigors of a randomized trial. I suspect that the TMH doctors are utilizing hydroxychloroquine, when appropriate, (along with with other drugs and therapies) as just one of the tools in their tool box.
I do agree that there is no evidence to suggest that hydroxychloroquine provides any sort of preventative or prophylactic effect (no matter how many times a person types on the internet that it does). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2020388
Dude. Don’t feed the children. It is starting to get as fruitful as explaining how a cellular telephone works to an ant colony.
Let them spin their wheels. As one adult to another, loved this post.
They think that being a contrarian for contrarianism’s sake is what the Founding Fathers did, and would applaud.
They can’t even bother to expend any effort. His appeal to authority for you was HEY cHeCK thIs Twitter ouT BrO!
Irony completely lost. Oh then he provided you summary materials. Which, like the news, is someone reading something for you, doing the work of analysis for you, and providing their summary on it.
All of this partisan wrangling has to stop, or America will destroy itself. Wake up people, take the time to drill down to the real news – it is there, it is just not pre-cooked and served up for you on the surface. The time for absorbing the pre-digested opinions of others is past. Think clearly, but above all think.
The Tallahassee Democrat is a Liberal Fake news publication that caters to Snowflakes. They tell only half truths and skew stories to suit their Liberal base! My wife has been taken Hydroxy for years for RA and never has had an issue. Look at the Covid infestation in Africa very low rates of disease. The experts said months ago this would be the next hot spot. There never was one. Why. Hydroxy is taken as a preventive for malaria and in doing so stopped the China virus!
It is amazing how, as soon as Trump said good things about hydroxychloroquine, the Media went nuts bashing Trump AND the Drug only to be made fools of by ALL the Doctors using it and swearing by the results and saying how great it works. Of course, you only hear about the very few people it didn’t work on only later to find out that the person taking it was not taking it with the other Drugs it was supposed to be taken with or they had major health issues, but that didn’t stop them from bashing Trump.