COVID19 Update - Day 74

US Tests: 13,784,786
US Cases: 1,613,894
US Deaths: 91,261
Worldwide Cases: 5,310,362
Worldwide Deaths: 342,097

Today's news about how Trump is spectacularly mismanaging the U.S. pandemic response is back on snake oil hydroxychloroquine again.  Although there was anecdotal evidence to suspect that taking hydroxychloroquine for the hell of it was a bad idea, this is the first study I've seen with hard data to back it up:

Hydroxychloroquine and President Trump’s obsession with it has been something of a running joke during the COVID19 Crisis, to the extent jokes are possible in such a dismal climate. But I want to flag your attention to this new study published in The Lancet, which has dire findings about the impact of hydroxychloroquine and the hydroxychloroquine in combination with the class of antibiotics the President has repeatedly endorsed. Here’s the study and here’s a write-up of the study in The Washington Post. Let me start with an arresting quote: “for those receiving hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic — the cocktail endorsed by Trump — there was a 45 percent increased risk of death … ”

That is, to state the obvious, a very bad number.

Sadly, it's unlikely that this study, or other studies like it, or even a proper double-blind study, or a boatload full of them, will stop Trump's zealotry on this topic.  And that's a problem, because certain populations will suffer from it more than others.

Like veterans, for example:

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, in a letter and documents provided to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), said the department had prescribed hydroxychloroquine to about 1,300 coronavirus patients of more than 10,000 veterans treated for the coronavirus "and will continue to do so in accordance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines." 

. . .

CNN reported in April on a study, which hadn't been peer reviewed, based on hundreds of patients in VA medical centers that found that coronavirus patients taking the drug did not see a reduced need for ventilation and had higher death rates compared to patients who did not take the medication.

Probably not a great way to 'support the troops'.

Minnesota has gone off the deep end.  Once or twice in the past few days, I have observed that perhaps Minnesota's plans to reopen are premature, given a recent spike in COVID19 infections and deaths, both within the health care provider I work for and across the state generally.  Today brought even more data to deepen this concern.

The increase in cases and fatalities doesn't seem to phase most Minnesotans, however.  I was at Home Depot today, and there were more cars in the lot than I have ever seen.  And only about half of the people there --- employees and customers alike --- were masked.

We ain't seen nothing yet.