WTF is up with the Hydroxychloroquine obsession?
BRAZIL HEALTH MINISTER RESIGNS Brazil’s Minister of Health, Nelson Teich, resigned from his position after only several weeks in office. Dr. Teich and his predecessor were reportedly pressured by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine and to work with the state governors to lift social distancing restrictions, which may have contributed to their respective decisions to resign.
President Bolsonaro reportedly instructed Dr. Teich to issue federal guidance that would increase the early use of hydroxychloroquine, despite concerns regarding the drug’s efficacy and risk of severe adverse effects. President Bolsonaro has also clashed with state governors, some of whom are resisting orders to relax social distancing measures.
Brazil has been reporting increasing COVID-19 incidence and deaths, including reporting its record high daily COVID-19 incidence and deaths yesterday, and the health system in São Paulo is reportedly on the brink of collapse.
Russia has been similarly obsessed with this drug.
Why are all these authoritarians so insistent that this particular drug is their magic cure-all? It’s like some sort of mass delusion.
Maybe it will turn out to have some usefulness. But the idea that these non-scientists are absolutely convinced that they’ve found the miracle cure based on nothing more than anecdotes speed through wingnut media speaks to the fact that these right wing authoritarian leaders are getting high on their own supply. They are as insane as their own followers.
As Chris Hayes put it last night: