Michigan Democrat With Coronavirus Praises Trump For Helping Saving Her Life: ‘I Do Thank Him For That’

On Monday, Michigan state Democratic Rep. Karen Whitsett who was suffering from the coronavirus thanked President Donald Trump for helping to save her life, claiming his constant recommendation of hydroxychloroquine prompted her to ask her doctor for the malaria drug.

If Not For Trump Recommending Hydroxychloroquine…

According to the Detroit Free Press, Whitsett “said she started taking hydroxychloroquine on March 31, prescribed by her doctor, after both she and her husband sought treatment for a range of symptoms on March 18.”

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“It was less than two hours’ before she started to feel relief, said Whitsett, who had experienced shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes, and what felt like a sinus infection,” the Free Press noted.

Whitsett said that due to a different medical condition that she had taken the drug before, but it wouldn’t have occurred to her to ask her doctor about treating coronavirus with it unless Trump had constantly brought it up.

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‘Yes, I do. I do thank him for that’

“It has a lot to do with the president… bringing it up,” Whitsett said. “He is the only person who has the power to make it a priority.”

When The Detroit Free Press asked her if she thought President Trump’s recommendation might have helped save her life, she replied, “Yes, I do. I do thank him for that.”

Trump tweeted, along with a link to the report, “Congratulations to State Representative Karen Whitsett of Michigan. So glad you are getting better!”

The FDA issued an “Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) last week to permit the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine sulfate supplied from the Strategic National Stockpile to treat adults and adolescents who weigh 50 kg or more and are hospitalized with COVID-19 for whom a clinical trial is not available, or participation is not feasible.”

While experts are still waiting on clinical trials to officially determine how effective the drug is in treating coronavirus, many doctors have said that it has worked well.

Trump is Only Echoing What Some Doctors Are Saying

Dr. Anthony Cardillo, CEO of Mend Urgent Care based in Los Angeles, praised the drug over the weekend during an interview with local news affiliate ABC 7 news and its anchor Jory Rand.

“What we’re finding clinically with our patients is that it really only works in conjunction with zinc. So the hydroxychloroquine opens the zinc channel, zinc goes into the cell, it then blocks the replication of the cellular machinery,” Cardillo said.

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“So, it has to be used in conjunction with zinc,” he continued. “We are seeing some clinical responses in that regard. There are people that take it regularly for other disease processes, we have to be cautious and mindful that we don’t prescribe for patients who have COVID that are well. It really should be reserved for people that are really sick, in the hospital, or at home very sick that need that medication, otherwise we’re going to blow through our supply for the patients that take it regularly for other disease processes.”

“Every patient I’ve prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8-12 hours they were basically symptom free and so, clinically I am seeing a resolution that mirrors what we saw in the French study and some of the other studies worldwide,” Cardillo continued. “But what I am seeing is that people that are taking it alone, by itself, it’s not having efficacy.”