It might surprise the self-righteous, COVID-1984 surveillance and speech police, that Australia’s Health Minister, Greg Hunt, has been funding research into the “controversial” drug hydroxychloroquine.
According to an article published by the Sydney Morning Herald in early June, “the federal government was increasing funding for research into hydroxychloroquine, announcing that it was giving $170,020 [sic] as part of a $66 million dollar investment into a range of research projects to fight COVID-19.”
Contra to many a Soc-Med armchair expert, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute director Professor Doug Hilton defended the research, stating: “What we’ve learnt is that if you provide hydroxychloroquine to very sick patients, you have to do so carefully. I think there is still a huge amount of scientific debate on the usefulness of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, and I think there is absolutely required to be more clinical trials.”
Professor Hilton doesn’t consider the drug a cure, or a treatment, but said that “if you look at the scientific evidence, and if you read the papers rather than simply reading the tweets about hydroxychloroquine, I think the consensus is it could well be an extraordinarily-useful preventative.”
Hunt backed the research despite the WHO halting its own study, as a result of safety concerns, which were raised in a Harvard affiliated study published by The Lancet medical journal, claiming to have “conclusively proven” that hydroxychloroquine was risky and ineffective against COVID-19.
Since publication that “study has had its validity” challenged after [two] corrections were published with the journal taking the unusual step of putting an ‘expression of concern’ on it.”
According to the Sydney Morning Herald: “Australian scientists poked holes in it, pointing out that the study seemed to include more Australian deaths than have actually occurred. Along with a range of other issues that have now been identified, with almost 200 scientists signing an open letter raising concerns about the study.”
This was supported by the New York Times in mid-June, which added that “the experts who wrote The Lancet also criticized the study’s methodology and the authors’ refusal to identify any of the hospitals that contributed patient data, or to name the countries where they were located.”
In a rejection of the scientists’ concerns of the study’s claims against hydroxychloroquine, as of today, there is and has been no independent review of its data, methodology and source material.
To add insult to the potentially massive injury the study has done across the globe, it remains live on The Lancet’s website.
The Australian Health Minister has been interested in hydroxychloroquine as a probable treatment or preventative for COVID-19 since March.
Nine News’ A Current Affair, in April, stated that Hunt had imported a “large supply” of “hydroxychloroquine for doctors to use them with patients who are in hospital.” Noting that “the advice Mr Hunt and the government have received is that experts are ‘cautiously hopeful’ hydroxychloroquine can have an impact.”
Quoting from the same interview, Medical Republic dropped Donald Trump’s endorsement of the drug next to side-effects reported by French political magazine Le Point, and blamed Trump’s endorsement for “disastrous off-label use,” while stating in the same article that medical professionals were “prescribing hydroxychloroquine for themselves, other doctors, and their families.”
The implication that thousands of highly educated medical professionals are prescribing hydroxychloroquine, based squarely on Donald Trump “endorsing the drug” is ludicrous.
Taking all this into account, it’s not a stretch to say that the politicisation of hydroxychloroquine isn’t the handiwork of Donald Trump, it’s the result of Leftist bureaucrats, and spin-doctors looking to deny Donald Trump a fair go at seeking re-election.
Look at how increasing anecdotal evidence is being suppressed by Silicon Valley as part of Big Tech’s ongoing support of The World Health Organisation.
Note well how Big Tech is supporting the same organisation that cheered on people calling Donald Trump and Scott Morrison’s travel bans on China, “racist”.
This is the same organisation that was more concerned about giving the Chinese virus a politically correct name instead of backing quarantine procedures that would have saved lives and livelihoods.
The same organisation that issued an authoritarian fiat back in February/March, with the justification that naming the virus from its point of origin – as has been tradition across the globe – was now apparently “racist”.
The same organisation that “kowtows” to the Communist Chinese Party, as Executive Director of UN Watch Hillel Neuer told Sky News in May, by running interference for the CCP in “a fight against any attempt to hold the CCP accountable.”
The Australian Government’s early move to supply hydroxychloroquine, and their funding of research into the drug as a weapon against COVID-19 is a condemnation of those suppressing anyone mentioning the word.
Hunt’s backing is justifiable. The sacrifice of medical professionals, patients, and freedom of speech isn’t.
Lives are riding on the research into hydroxychloroquine. The suppression of any data that could help speed up this research betrays a catastrophic contempt for human life.
