At the beginning of the pandemic last year when the entire planet was still oblivious to the full extent of the dangerous Coronavirus, leaked from the labs of Wuhan, China, it was the Indian medicine Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) that helped weather the initial storm. The tablet was also endorsed by former US President Donald Trump in May as a treatment for COVID-19 as the US imported around 50 million HCQ tablets from India. However, soon after, a concentrated campaign was orchestrated by the American liberal media and Big Pharma to besmirch the Indian medicine, leading to its demotion in the pecking order of medicines used for the treatment of the virus.
However, a year later, a research study has revealed that India’s HCQ was more than capable of curing Coronavirus cases. According to a report by Washington Examiner, a new study published by MedRxiv found that hydroxychloroquine and zinc treatments in patients increased the coronavirus survival rate by as much as nearly 200% if distributed at higher doses to ventilated patients with a severe version of the illness.
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) became a flashpoint in Covid treatment after Trump touted its benefits. To stop HCQ’s use, The Lancet published, and then retracted, a fake study. Now an American study finds that HCQ plus zinc treatment in patients increased Covid survival by 2.9 times. pic.twitter.com/nJaQkfegcX
— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) June 11, 2021
The study revealed, “We found that when the cumulative doses of two drugs, HCQ and AZM, were above a certain level, patients had a survival rate 2.9 times the other patients,.”
The study looked at 255 COVID-19 patients who required invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) during the first two months of the pandemic in the US.
As reported by TFI, such was the level of misinformation run by American Big Pharma and their media loyalists against HCQ that high profile medical journal Lancet was forced to retract a study that claimed the use of HCQ to treat the COVID-19 increased the mortality rate among patients, and publish a public apology.
Correcting itself, the Lancet tweeted, “Today, three of the authors have retracted “Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis” Read the Retraction notice and statement from The Lancet.”
Today, three of the authors have retracted “Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis” Read the Retraction notice and statement from The Lancet https://t.co/pPNCJ3nO8n pic.twitter.com/pB0FBj6EXr
— The Lancet (@TheLancet) June 4, 2020
Lancet has lately turned into a business house working solely for profit rather than a medical science journal whose aim should be to print credible medical breakthroughs.
When India managed to contain the first wave, the Indian government, on the wise counsel of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had kept using HCQ as a prophylactic as well as a therapeutic drug. The continuous use of HCQ could have been the reason behind India’s high recovery rate and low death rates.
However, in the second wave, the government succumbed to the lobby and introduced Ivermectin as an alternative. While a direct correlation cannot be established but it is safe to say, India faltered badly in the absence of HCQ.
While HCQ continued to receive harsh criticism, an American pharma company named Gilead Sciences Inc’s ‘Remdesivir’ injections jumped in and the spurious bubble around it continued to inflate. Desperate families started looking tugged onto the Remdesivir injections that were available in scarce quantities and were much expensive in comparison to HCQ, as the last-ditch effort to save their kin.
Recently, over 100 patients were given fake Remdesivir injections in Madhya Pradesh and surprisingly more than 90 per cent of them survived, further suggesting that the American big pharma cos milked the opportunity to push their medicine in the country to replace the gap created by the discontinuation of HCQ. Moreover, many cases of hoarding of the drug have also been reported across the states in India in the last couple of months.
Just the way Plasma therapy has been removed from the medical protocols, now calls have been growing to drop Remdesivir as well.
Ganga Ram Hospital Chairperson Dr DS Rana was quoted as saying by ANI, “…there is no such evidence regarding Remdesivir that works in COVID-19 treatment. Medicines that do not have any activity to work, will have to be discontinued,”
Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, India emerged as the saviour of the world first by supplying Hydroxychloroquine medicine, then the medical equipment’s and lastly through the Vaccine Maitri program where lifesaving vaccines were delivered to countries across the globe. However, the Western world has continued to undermine New Delhi’s efforts. The treatment meted to HCQ was orchestrated by foreign big pharma and somehow they managed to be successful in their pursuit. After HCQ, they have started to come after Covaxin and it might be a matter of time before it becomes a full-blown smear campaign as well.