Courtesy of the Bastrop Advertiser
April 30, 2020
By Bill McCann
A decade ago I developed a nasty rash on my chest. With my family doctor unavailable, I went to a nearby minor emergency clinic. The physician prescribed an ointment and an antibiotic ‒ a high-powered one, I learned later. The rash went away, but my liver went south. I was fatigued. My skin and whites of my eyes were yellow.
A specialist ran numerous tests that turned up nothing. I asked him if he thought the antibiotic I took for the rash could have caused the liver damage. He said it was possible. Fortunately, my liver recovered with time.
My intention here is not to second guess any physician, but to illustrate that the practice of medicine is complex. Most of my physicians over the years have been outstanding, but they did not always have all the answers. The medicines they prescribed are not perfect either. Drugs sometimes cause side effects, like liver damage.
Physicians have tough, life-and-death jobs. That is why we don’t need quacks like President Donald Trump playing doctor and dispensing medical advice. It is bad for our health. When it comes to Trump’s medical prognostications, we always should get a second opinion.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has offered opinions based on ignorance and his political impulses. He has disputed statements by his own medical experts when they did not match his fantasy that everything soon will be normal again and better than ever. Initially, Trump compared this coronavirus to the common flu. It’s not. He said it would disappear in warm weather. It hasn’t. Then he began pushing the drug hydroxychloroquine – successfully used for years to treat lupus and prevent malaria – as a possible “game changer” for fighting the virus.
“I’m not a doctor,” Trump said, before suggesting that if people were sick from the virus they might have nothing to lose from trying the drug. Trump praised the drug despite insistence by medical experts that it needed clinical testing to determine its efficacy against the virus. Fox News hosts, trying mightily to help Trump promote a quick fix to boost his reelection chances, took turns hustling the drug big-time.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning against the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, outside of hospitals or clinical studies because the drugs can cause serious heart rhythm problems. The FDA warning followed the release of a study of 368 patients at Veterans Health Administration medical centers showing that patients given hydroxychloroquine had more than twice the death rate as those who did not get it.
Trump’s latest, and most shocking, act of malfeasance occurred last week during a news briefing when he raised the possibility of injecting toxic disinfectants into people to fight the virus. His comments came after a senior Homeland Security official discussed research showing, among other things, the virus can die off quickly when exposed to sunlight and even faster with bleach or alcohol.
Trump then asked bizarre questions about both zapping infected people with “powerful light” and injecting them with a disinfectant. The social media fallout was instantaneous. The White House blamed the news media. Trump supporters pretended he didn’t say what everyone heard. A backpedaling Trump said he was being sarcastic – an excuse that middle schoolers couldn’t get away with. The makers of Clorox and Lysol quickly warned the public not to ingest or inject their products. Medical experts, including those in the Trump Administration, issued similar warnings.
My advice: Listen to your doctor, not politicians, about all medical issues. Especially not a politician who would say or do just about anything if he thought it might benefit himself or his political future.
