Hydroxychloroquine: Ten-Cent-a-Pill Bat Flu Antidote. So Can We Please Now Get on With Our Lives

As reported by Anthony Watts:

An effective treatment for #Coronavirus #COVID-19 has been found in a common anti-malarial drug Encouraging news: three new medical studies show a commonly available anti-malaria drug known as chloroquine aka chloroquine phosphate is showing strong results against COVID-19 infections in both China and South Korea. Excerpts from three studies, including one published in Nature are below.

 

Corona Virus Mortality in Italy:
 Italy's National Health Authority reports that of 2500 corona-virus-linked deaths, 99% were of people with other illnesses: more than 75% had high blood pressure, about 35% had diabetes and a third suffered from heart disease. Moreover, as of March 17, 17 people under 50 had died from the disease. The average age of those who died was 79.5. All of which raises the question, is COVID19 any more hazardous than any other kind of flu. Based on these statistics, that seems doubtful. Although the numbers vary greatly from year to year, Italy has, in recent years, had an average of around 15,000 flu deaths per year.

Related:
Journal of Critical Care: A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19
Bloomberg: 99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says
Tech Startups: New academic study reveals over-the-counter anti-malaria med Chloroquine may be highly effective at treating coronavirus
Guardian: Japanese flu drug 'clearly effective' in treating coronavirus, says China
The Connexion: French researcher posts successful Covid-19 drug trial
Pharmaceutical Technology: UK bans parallel export and hoarding of three Covid-19 drugs
Prime PubMed: A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19.
Prime PubMed: Expert consensus on chloroquine phosphate for the treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia
Int'l. J. Antimicrobial Agents: Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as available weapons to fight COVID-19

Unz Review Blames American Covert Attack on China for Bat Flu Now Beginning to Ravage the Western Nations

A commenter at the Unz Review writes: "Defense One is smearing Philip Giraldi (an Unz Review contributor) as a “conspiracy monger” who works for Russia."

Patrick Tucker said, “another piece of PressTV’s COVID-19-as-bioweapon coverage cites Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer and conspiracy monger writing for the Moscow-backed Strategic Culture Foundation. Giraldi’s evidence that the United States, and not China, is the source of the virus? There are some regions of China with more bats than Wuhan, he argues, but somehow those regions have fewer cases of COVID-19.”

Well, at least that bit's accurate as is evident from the first paragraph of Giraldi's Unz Review article:

The most commonly reported mainstream media account of the creation of the Coronavirus suggests that it was derived from an animal borne microorganism found in a wild bat that was consumed by an ethnic Chinese resident of Wuhan. But there appears to be some evidence to dispute that in that adjacent provinces in China, where wild bats are more numerous, have not experienced major outbreaks of the disease.

Can't say if Giraldi works for the Russians. But other arguments that Giraldi and his defenders present in support of the notion that the bat flu is an American biowarfare agent loosed with malicious intent upon China, are about as absurd as the one Defence One cites.
Another Unz Review commenter remarks:

As soon as COVID-19 is attributed to the US government (and that won’t take long,)

Which is as clear an admission as one will find at the Unz Review that there is currently no evidence whatsoever to attribute COVID19 to the US Government. Where this death dealing virus came from, I have no firm opinion. But I would like some real evidence before presenting a conclusion that could legitimately be taken as a justification for war.

Related:
Moon of Alabama: Coronavirus - The Hidden Cases - Why We Must Shut Everything Down And Do It Now

Communists will shut down a city to prevent a deadly epidemic from going exponential. Our neo-liberal leaders only started to care when the Dow Jones went down. Don't expect them to call for a shutdown as that will cost their donor's some money. As mostly elderly people will die they are probably calculating how much money the pension funds will save.

Vox Popoli: Italy shuts down harder

the Italian premier just announced that all retail stores are closed across the country except for pharmacies and grocery stores.

In other news out of Italy, the Boomercaust is officially upon us "as country's top doctors say intensive care units should stop treating the elderly."