Wuhan Virus Watch: France and Italy approve use of chloroquine for patients with extreme coronavirus
Pot and booze sales up. Condom supply threatened. “Gluten Free” items not “Panic Buy” favorites.
While the American press pushes smears regarding President Donald Trump’s discussions of the malarial drug chloroquine as a potential treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus, the French and Italian governments have approved its use.
In France, the government caved to pressure from renowned Dr. Didier Raoult, who led the new additional study on 80 patients, results show a combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin to be effective in treating COVID-19. Dr Didier Raoult, a professor of infectious diseases who works at La Timone hospital in Marseille, then declared in a video on YouTube that chloroquine was a cure for Covid-19 and should be used immediately.
…France now allows drug chloroquine to be given to coronavirus patients with extreme case of the disease. Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday, “The anti-malarial drug chloroquine can be administered in France to patients suffering from the severest forms of the coronavirus but only under strict supervision.” Veran also cautioned: “The high council recommends not to use this treatment… with the exception of grave cases, hospitalized, on the basis of a decision taken by doctors and under strict surveillance.”
Italian government also announced on Friday that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine could be used to treat all coronavirus patients. Italian government also said the payment will be paid for entirely by the Italian national healthcare system. Yesterday, we also reported that Hungary, the United Kingdom and India, have all banned export of the anti-malarial drugs to explore the usage in treating coronavirus patients in their respective countries.
For additional background on these decisions:
France allows drug chloroquine to be given to gravest coronavirus cases:
The anti-malarial drug chloroquine can be administered in France to patients suffering from the severest forms of the coronavirus but only under strict supervision, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday. Citing a ruling adopted after a meeting of France’s high public health council, Veran said the drug could not be used to treat milder cases of the illness
In Italy, anti-malarial and AIDS drugs approved for coronavirus use (Translated from Italian):
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine based antimalarial drugs are authorized in Italy: They are fully charged to the National Health Service for the treatment of patients with Sars-CoV2 infection.
Also authorized for the same use are the combinations of the anti-AIDS drugs lopinavir / ritonavir, danuravir / cobicistat, darunavir, ritonavir, also paid for by the National Health Service
Marijuana sales up 50% in New York City amid pandemic
In New York City, the hottest of the nation’s hot spots, residents are turning to more herbal comfort.
The city has gone to pot. Marijuana, that is.
Since the coronavirus hit, sales of marijuana have gone through the roof in both the United States and Canada. Between March 16 and 22, sales of recreational cannabis rose by 50 percent across states including California, Colorado and Oregon, while medical marijuana sales jumped 41 percent from the same period a year ago.
Despite recreational pot still being illegal here, New Yorkers are helping fuel the trend.
“Business is up a good 50 percent,” said one Manhattan dealer (who asked to remain anonymous). “I work in every borough except Staten Island, and people are very happy that my service is running. Customers are saying ‘Thank you’.”
Liquor store sales are up during the pandemic
Sadly, in California, our Governor has not deemed liquor stores as “essential businesses,” so they are closed. However, I noticed that a lot of the people in line Friday had plenty of beer and wine in the cartat the grocert store.
According to Nielsen data for the week ending March 14, off-premise (i.e., grocery and liquor store) sales were up 27.6 percent for wine, 26.4 for spirits, and 14 percent for beer, cider, and malt beverages (compared to last year’s sales for the same week). Order sizes are bigger, too: Three-liter boxed wine is up 53 percent, and 24 packs of beer are up 24 percent. Some specific retailers point to even higher numbers.
Gary’s Wine & Marketplace, which operates four locations in New Jersey and one in Napa, California, has seen a 62 percent increase in overall sales, a 20 percent increase in overall in-store foot traffic, and a 300 percent increase in local delivery. At Liquor Barn, the leading alcohol retailer in Kentucky, purchase sizes are up 48 percent, and delivery sales, a recent point of focus, are up 600 percent. “We always thought delivery was the future, and we spent a ton of capital investing infrastructure to do it,” says Jonathan Blue, whose equity firm owns Liquor Barn.
As for myself, I am working through a delightful bottle of Don Viejo pre-made margaritas!
Condom shortage looms after coronavirus lockdown shuts world’s top producer
Projections of a baby-boom in December and January are likely to be correct.
A global shortage of condoms is looming, the world’s biggest producer said, after a coronavirus lockdown forced it to shut down production.
Malaysia’s Karex Bhd makes one in every five condoms globally. It has not produced a single condom from its three Malaysian factories for more than a week due to a lockdown imposed by the government to halt the spread of the virus.
That’s already a shortfall of 100 million condoms, normally marketed internationally by brands such as Durex, supplied to state healthcare systems such as Britain’s NHS or distributed by aid programmes such as the UN Population Fund.
The Groceries That No One Wants to Panic-Buy
I will simply note that the last cans of soup on the self were “Corn Chowder” and the “Gluten-Free” pasta remained unsold.
In many places, nervous shoppers have been stockpiling groceries in anticipation of extended spells of social distancing. Although it’s not the rule everywhere, markets across the country have been struggling to replenish their wares as canned foods, dried goods, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper become worth their weight in gold.
But there are a few consumer attitudes that even a run on supermarkets cannot erase: Some foods are just that unappealing. Here, according to Twitter users and Slate staffers’ own ill-fated shopping trips, is what isn’t flying off the shelves.
Even those #coronavirus panic buying don’t want gluten free bread. Almost every shelf at Tesco empty. Except the gluten free section… coeliac silver lining. pic.twitter.com/K67xESV32J
— Phoebe Bowden (@PhoebeBowden) March 21, 2020
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Comments
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 changed the way people live, forever, and not only in the US but all over the world.
That’s about to happen again.
What? Lots more hand washing, and masses staying home like forever if the government tells you to, oh, and sneezing into your elbow
Exiiado actually has a point.
My big boss has already stated that he doesn’t see the vast majority of our offices ever opening again (I work for a bank). This will mean MASSIVE savings due to the reduced property footprint in London alone.
Also having so many people working from home has shown senior management that there is no need for centralising staff in to expensive buildings, especially as so many technology staff can be doing their jobs from anywhere.
Even call centre staff are finding it’s actually possible to be working from home while maintaining security of sensitive customer data!
Yes, this Chinese Wuhan Bat Soup Flu is turning things upside down alright…and not all of it is bad.
Business travel and cruise ship travel may never recover.
Meant to hit reply and got down vote instead. Sheesh.
Anyway, time to change the name of the virus to more accurately reflect it’s origin. Probably racist too, lolololol if you believe it.
The Wubonic Plague. Use it with gusto.
I think I will stick to “Chinese Virus” for the time being.
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Now, about your accidental down vote: Not a problem.
I am not bothered by down votes. I don’t come to this site for up votes. Neither do I come for down votes like some people, without naming names, who seem to enjoy getting down-voted. Thankfully, they are not too many.
I come to this site mostly to learn from the professor, the authors, and from the commenters, with the exception of the down-vote-hungry types mentioned above.
So far I don’t remember ever being disappointed.
Why is the Medical establishment allowing people to die? The drugs have been tested and they work. Instead of giving it to critically ill patients, only the chosen few with connections live.
hydrooxychloroquine-zinc-antibiotic cocktail works! He has kept almost all of his many (500-700) hasidic patients out of the hospital! Every primary-case physician treating COVID-19 patients
https://youtu.be/1TJdjhd_XG8
Base on Dr. Vlaidimar Zelnko, this is not going to work. You need to administer the cocktail before it becomes critical to prevent the lungs from being destroyed. Wouldn’t critical be too late and the lung damage have occurred?
Does any doctor wait until Step Throat turns into rheumatic fever before reluctantly agreeing to give amoxicillin? These TDS government officials are …deranged.
I’m not conspiracy minded enough to call this intentional, but I do see the inevitable consequence of withholding a promising treatment until final symptoms have set in. Dozens of patients who are just one step from death will be given this drug and die anyway, and the media will happily crow over their dead bodies, “Look, you fools! The medicine doesn’t work! We’re all doomed! Only complete and total takeover by the government and billions of dollars sent to our favorite leftist causes will be able to save us!”
Isn’t that basically what the French doctor said? The one patient who dolied was too far along when he was admitted. And I thought he also said that the earlier you started treatment the better it worked?
So the logical question is, why are our governments trying to kill or permanently incapacitate so many of us?
Due to media incompetence or (possibly justified) government suppression), there is no information available as to the supply of hydroxychloriquine. This could be a limiting factor.
A new trend is spreading on social media among Italians
— Under the slogan “We will save ourselves”, Italians burn the flag of the EU while playing the Italian national anthem.
Italy asked for aid from the EU and got nothing.
All well and good. Will Italy back it by refusing to feed the EU kitty?
The EU was already in a tailspin over how to rework the transfer payments from rich countries to poor ones, post-Brexit. Then they did nothing while Turkey invaded Greece. Then they did nothing while Italian hospitals were turning away patients.
It’s all over but the paperwork. The EU is dead.
Europe’s “Articles of Confederation” moment. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next. The EU had some actual real positive points to it, but they could not resist trying to regulate everything that moved and subsidizing everything that stopped moving.
They were inevitably doomed from the time they stopped being an economic confederation and started trying to be a government.
EU countries have a long history of leaving their neighbors to hang.
Let’s not act so surprised when they do exactly what they’ve done to each other at every moment of consequence throughout history.
Wouldn’t it be wise not to let the patient become severely ill?
Is this reluctance to use the drug because Trump says it offers some hope (ironically based on 3 French experiments, albeit not trials)? Is TDS now deadly?
There are over 200 trials currently logged in to the NIH trial site:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=COVID-19
It is not like people are standing around or stopped because they think they have a fix.
Media continues to hype this with drama healthcare workers and a few TDS doctors.
The more a rich famous Libby elitist hates trump and claims this stuff doesn’t work the higher the probability the Libby elitist is already taking the stuff or calling around telling a possible supplier that he will pay any price to get it.
Typical M.D. advises patients supplements aren’t needed. Takes samples home to his family.
Politics at play no doubt. Any other President wouldn’t be having half these problems. I love you President Trump!
The panic seems to be over here. The local supermarket finally got the message and has stockers working during store hours. I got everything I needed today with the exception of paper products and half and half. There were stockers busy in virtually every aisle. Same thing with the shoppers – the store was actually doing less than average business.
On March 27 Tucker Carlson interviewed Dr. Steve Kassapidis, for the second time.. He works at Mr. Sinai Hospital in Astoria. He casually mentioned that he has been using Plaquenil as a prophylactic. The medical community drew their own conclusions a while back.
The United States has been testing this drug since Feb 7..
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04261517
Saw this. Tucker didn’t catch this at first and next doc guest had to explain plaquenil. Good thing dr Steve not in nv or mi or he mite be looking for new job.
HOWEVER. Watch this video from an expert on chlorinique, warning of a risk that Dr Zelenko and others pushing this cocktail are unaware of. The combination of chlorinique and Z-Pack can cause heart attacks.
“FDA issues emergency authorization of anti-malaria drug for coronavirus care”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/29/fda-emergency-authorization-anti-malaria-drug-155095
Article contains the usual anti-Trump snark.