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To: louel who wrote (4890)3/22/2020 9:12:44 AM
From: elmatador  Respond to of 13801
 
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Should Resign


The tenure of the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been marred by incompetence and deference to dictators. The coronavirus pandemic is far too serious to allow Dr. Ghebreyesus to continue in his post. The WHO should be led by someone else.


It's unclear what planet World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is inhabiting, but it's certainly not this one.

Today, CNBC reports that Dr. Ghebreyesus claims not to have seen any evidence that Iran has been covering up its coronavirus cases, despite pretty clear evidence that Iran has been covering up its coronavirus cases.

For instance, as CNBC indicates, Iran reported coronavirus deaths on the same day that it reported infections, which means the virus had been there possibly for weeks before the government said anything. Worse, BBC Persian says it tallied 210 dead, but the government only acknowledges 54.

Dr. Ghebreyesus's defense was that he cannot rely on journalists; instead, the WHO has its own mechanisms. Fine. (I wouldn't want the CDC to rely on journalists, either.) But one of those mechanisms resulted in Dr. Ghebreyesus appointing the late Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe a " goodwill ambassador," so maybe those WHO mechanisms need to be reconsidered.

That wasn't the only whopper Dr. Ghebreyesus told. On Sunday, CNBC also reported that he said, "Based on the facts on the ground, containment is possible."

What?!

As of publication, the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) has been confirmed in nearly 90,000 patients across 68 countries. The virus is thought to cause mild or asymptomatic infections as well as serious ones, implying that there may be hundreds of thousands of people infected.

A genetic analysis suggests that the coronavirus may have been circulating in the Seattle area for six weeks, and today, New York City confirmed its first case. The virus is way beyond containment at this point.

It's perfectly fine to be wrong. I was wrong. I didn't think the coronavirus would be a big deal, but it's clearly now a big deal. When the facts change, you have to change your mind. Why is Dr. Ghebreyesus doubling down on something that is so obviously untrue?

It seems that Dr. Ghebreyesus has considerations other than public health in mind, such as politics. In late January, the WHO declined to declare the coronavirus a global emergency. Then, when it finally got around to stating the obvious, it refused to name the microbe the "Wuhan coronavirus" (which is what everybody else had been calling it), opting in favor of the nonsensical but politically correct SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. (It is entirely routine to name viruses after locations. For example, Ebola is named after a river in Africa.)

ELMAT: You know, no need to hide.
  • The Lhasa fever virus is named after the town in Nigeria where the first cases occurred.
  • Japanese encephalitis,
  • West Nile viruses, and
  • Zika took Its name comes from the Zika Forest of Uganda

On top of all that, Dr. Ghebreyesus praised China for its draconian response to the virus, which not only included quarantining millions of people but arresting anyone who "spread rumors." In an article for the Council on Foreign Relations, Michael Collins concludes:

The WHO’s weak response to China’s mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak has laundered China’s image at the expense of the WHO’s credibility.

The rate of infection in China appears to be declining, but the risk of a global pandemic is increasing. The time is ripe for clear leadership from the WHO based on science not politics.

Mr. Collins is absolutely correct. Dr. Ghebreyesus should resign. But, of course, he won't. Not when WHO staffers spend $200 million a year on travel, flying in business class as they gallivant about the globe in 5-star hotels.







To: louel who wrote (4890)3/25/2020 1:50:28 AM
From: elmatador  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 13801
 
Are you enjoying the taste of the 30 day free trial of Chinese Communism?



To: louel who wrote (4890)4/21/2020 6:39:12 PM
From: Elroy Jetson  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 13801
 
Anti-malarial drug touted by Dr Donald 'Plague-Boy' Trump provides NO BENEFIT and is associated HIGHER RATES of DEATH in VA Study

Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic combination received no benefit in rates of death or in use of a ventilator

The study by VA and academic researchers analyzed outcomes of 368 male patients nationwide, with 97 receiving hydroxychloroquine, 113 receiving hydroxychloroquine in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, and 158 not receiving any hydroxychloroquine.

Rates of death in the groups treated with the drugs were worse than those who did not receive the drugs, the study found. Rates of patients on ventilators were roughly equal, with no benefit demonstrated by the drugs.

More than 27 percent of patients treated with hydroxychloroquine died, and 22 percent of those treated with the combination therapy died, compared with an 11.4 percent death rate in those not treated with the drugs, the study said. The results were from an observational study of outcomes and were not part of a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, which is the gold standard for testing drugs.

The study was published on the site medrxiv.org, which is a clearinghouse for academic studies on the coronavirus that have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in academic journals.

“An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone,” wrote the authors, who are affiliated with the University of Virginia, the University of South Carolina, and the VA system in Columbia, S.C. “These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs.”

The coronavirus pandemic has overtaken the globe faster than science can respond. There are no vaccines or treatments approved to combat its spread or ease severe respiratory symptoms that have claimed over 175,000 lives worldwide.

In some cases, hope has trumped evidence in the worldwide rush to find countermeasures. Hospitals and doctors around the world have been prescribing chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, often in combination with azithromycin, based on a belief it can help, despite a lack of sound evidence that the drugs make patients better or eliminate virus from the body.

Interest in the drugs peaked after Trump began repeatedly boosting their use in White House news conferences. He tweeted a reference to a French study in March that has since come under scrutiny for its skimpy trial size and questionable methods. In a decision that did not cite any evidence of benefit, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization allowing the drug to be administered in hospitals.

But the dangers of these drugs to treat certain coronavirus patients is becoming apparent, especially when hydroxychloroquine is used in combination with azithromycin. The small risk of cardiac death for patients on these drugs stems from a well-known side effect: They extend the split-second time required for the heart to recharge between beats, a condition called QT prolongation.

Citing the phenomenon, a panel of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, citing the risks, strongly advised its physician members that the combination of the drugs should be given only in a clinical trial. It cited the lack of clear evidence of any benefit. Its treatment guidelines stated the “overall certainty of evidence was very low.”

The French national agency in charge of drug safety reported that 43 patients taking hydroxychloroquine or a combination of the drug and azithromycin suffered cardiac-related side effects and between one and four deaths. The agency said the drugs should be given only to patients who are hospitalized with covid-19, the disease the coronavirus causes. Researchers in Brazil ended a portion of a clinical trial testing high doses of chloroquine in covid-19 patients after they developed heart problems and suffered higher mortality.

A team of researchers at New York University’s Langone Medical Center found that, out of 84 patients treated with the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, 11 percent had QT prolongation beyond 500 milliseconds — the proven danger zone for sudden cardiac death. Thirty percent of the patients overall had significant increases in their hearts’ QT intervals.

“This is a really extreme situation … where you have hundreds of thousands, if not more, of people taking a known combination that prolongs the QT interval in a generally high-risk situation,” he said.
In hospitals, the way to manage the risk of fatal side effects is with electrocardiogram monitoring, according to specialists. But even advanced ECG screening may not reduce the risk.

The NYU Langone study showed that existing QT prolongation did not predict a subsequent QT increase from use of the drugs. Renal failure was a greater risk factor — indicating the sickest patients are at the greatest risk of dangerous side effects from the drugs.