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Trump Isn’t the One Politicizing Science Antimalarials seemed promising, then failed in trials. That’s how it’s supposed to work. By Joel Zinberg Posted By Ruth King on December 15th, 2020
Politics has infected many issues over the past four years and has now reached the supposedly objective halls of official medicine. In an editorial for the Journal of the American Medical Association, “Misguided Use of Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: The Infusion of Politics Into Science,” Dr. Michael Saag claims that “the politicization of the treatment” was more important than the science in promoting the use of the antimalaria drug to treat Covid-19. This evidence-free claim is contradicted by information in the same editorial and the scientific literature.
The coronavirus behind the pandemic presents some vexing dualities.
It’s dangerous enough that it dispatches patients to hospitals in droves and has killed more than 1.6 million people, but mild enough that most people shrug it off. It blocks one arm of the immune system from responding as it takes hold, but lures other parts into dangerous hyperdrive. It homes in on cells high up in the airway think the nose and throat but also burrows deeper into the lungs, maximizing infectiousness without ceding how sick it can make people.
“It’s sort of right in that sweet spot,” said Kristian Andersen, an infectious disease expert at Scripps Research Institute.