The reaction to President Trumps endorsement of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) provides a textbook example of how the media automatically pushes back against anything the president says or does.

The anti-Trump propaganda machine were apoplectic when Trump announced he was taking it himself, as prescribed by his doctor.

Approved for medical use in the United States in 1955, HCQ is on the World Health Organizations list of essential medicines, as one of the safest and most effective medicines needed in any health system. Its been prescribed hundreds of millions of times worldwide and has saved millions of lives as a malaria drug.

Nevertheless, celebrity medical experts knew better. Joy Behar of The View said anyone who takes hydroxychloroquine is crazy. Barbara Streisand speculated that Trump says hes now taking hydroxychloroquine . . . could it be because he has a small stake in the company that owns it? Bette Midler said the side effects are paranoia, hallucinations and psychosis.

Jimmy Kimmel chimed in with I thought about it for a long time last night, and Ive come to what I think is the only reasonable conclusion. Hes trying to kill himself.

(On a personal note, Ive been taking 400 milligrams of HCQ daily for more than five years for rheumatoid arthritis, with no side effects that Im aware of.)

A more serious example of how politics has contaminated rational debate was provided by Lancet. On May 15, this so-called unbiased medical journal ran an unsigned editorial saying American voters should replace Trump: America must put a president in the White House who should understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.

Lancet followed up with research saying that HCQ caused 30 percent increase risk of death for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Some 120 doctors, epidemiologists and statisticians challenged the validity of the study, saying scrutiny has raised both methodological and date integrity concerns. Lancet admitted the study was flawed and disavowed it.

Lancet editor-in-chief Richard Horton told the Australian Guardian newspaper, This is a shocking example of research misconduct in the middle of a global health emergency.

Unfortunately, this isnt shocking to anyone who follows the knee-jerk hostility to Trump.

Jim Grodnik

Brevard

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The Media's Bad Medicine - The - The Transylvania Times