This piece from the Daily Beast’s “Right Richter” newsletter sheds some light on this weird phenomenon. Donald Trump’s obsession is simply that he thought he had a miracle cure and he can’t ever admit he waswrong. But this thing is being pushed by other people as well for reasons that seemed obscure. Sure, there’s money involved, of course. But there’s more to it:
Initially, a group of doctors organized by the Tea Party Patriots scored a viral hit Monday with a press conference outside the Supreme Court lambasting conventional wisdom on the coronavirus and praising the unproven drug. Video of Texas Dr. Stella Immanuel praising hydroxychloroquine and bashing mask-wearing earned presidential retweets and more than 13 million views on Facebook before it was taken off the platform.
But Immanuel’s usefulness as the face of hydroxychloroquine faded after Right Richter pointed out that she also believes, among other things, that real-life medical problems are caused by sex with demons and that alien DNA can be used in medical treatments.
Other doctors at the press conference had plenty of issues themselves. One, for example, produced a comically flawed study on the coronavirus’ prevalence in California. Nevertheless, Trump wouldn’t back down in his crusade to give them a platform, calling Immanuel an “important voice” on the virus response.
Why the fixation on hydroxychloroquine at all costs?
For the vast majority of Trump supporters, of course, the drug represents the possibility that COVID-19 can be successfully treated and the deaths stopped. But there’s also a political benefit: portraying hydroxychloroquine as a forbidden cure allows pro-Trump media to blame anyone but Trump for the coronavirus disaster. In this telling, COVID-19 could have been cured months ago with hydroxychloroquine, if only the Democrats, the media, and Dr. Anthony Fauci would have listened to Trump!
Mega-popular right-wing talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, for example, has portrayed the opposition to hydroxychloroquine as an anti-Trump plot.
“We’ve got people in this country doing their level best to destroy it, to scare people into not using it,” Limbaugh said on Monday.
This angle became a little clearer Thursday, when Herman Cain died of COVID-19 a month after he attended Trump’s maskless Tulsa rally. Cain’s death, in theory, should have brought home the coronavirus’ seriousness to the hardcore Trump faithful who have refused to wear masks.
Instead, The Gateway Pundit knew who was to blame: Anthony Fauci, for opposing hydroxychloroquine!
“Is Dr. Fauci to Blame for Herman Cain’s Death?” the far-right website asked.
“Herman Cain’s death is tragic,” Gateway Pundit boss Jim Hoft wrote. “It is too early to know what happened with his treatment. But it is clear that Dr. Fauci, the tech giants, and the liberal media are to blame for THOUSANDS of coronavirus deaths.”
As the death toll continues to mount, hydroxychloroquine’s value as a distraction from the administration’s own failures will likely only increase.
That sounds right to me. Because people are holding Trump accountable for this monstrous debacle, this is what they’ve come up with as their “I know you are but what am I” response.
And the fact that people are taking a drug that won’t help them and in some cases could hurt them is of no particular concern.