The cocktail solution

People know government can spend astronomical amounts of money, crisis or not, and who cares where they get it as long as they’re in on the deal.  They also believe to the depths of their souls that the ones running the show are well-educated with the best of intentions since they have a stake in the outcome of their policies.  Since their leaders are not psychopaths, at least clinically, unless Keynesianism is now a clinical disorder, they wouldn’t deliberately sink the ship that keeps them and their families afloat living a life of splendor and privilege.

They therefore trust government, trust that it will act in their interest.  But that’s where they repeatedly make a critical mistake.  It’s the free market that serves them, not the government.

Government as it exists discourages people from acting responsibly.  Being dependents, they find it natural to scream for help every time they find a boogey man under their beds.  You could argue that their plea is aligned with the libertarian notion of government as our protector.  The Declaration said men have certain inalienable rights, and that “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men . . .”  Thus, the nearly-universal cry for government to do something about an invisible threat amounts to calling on it to do its job: Protect our right to life.

The idea that government should also protect our liberty at the same time passes by the wayside.  Turning dependents free would endanger their lives and would violate government’s duty to protect them.

As government’s only tool is force, through which it maintains its own monopoly and creates many others, you might wonder how we’re going to recover from the current crisis.  The Fed’s counterfeiting machine is too busy racking up debt to bother eradicating a virus.  The only other possibility is the free market which in today’s world is never free.  Yet the willingness of smart people to experiment and innovate is still alive, with many encouraging results, in spite of government threats.

The Cocktail

    

The administering of HCQ (hydroxychloroquine) and CQ (chloroquine) in combination with azithromycin and zinc have emerged not from the FDA, CDC, or WHO but from physicians around the world trying to find ways to keep patients alive.  One of the best-known practitioners in the US has been Dr. Vladmir Zelenko, who so far is batting a thousand treating patients diagnosed with COVID-19.  As of March 29, 2020, of the 699 reported cases treated in an outpatient setting, none have died, been intubated, or sent to the ICU.  His recommendation: Once a diagnosis of COVID-19 is confirmed, hit it hard immediately with his cocktail of drugs: HCQ (200mg 2X daily), azithromycin (500mg 1X daily), and zinc (220mg 1X daily).

As he reports in an extensive interview with Rudy Giuliani, the cost is about $20 for the five-day treatment.  He emphasizes that “this is all new” and that “I’m developing this stuff as I go along” — meaning he’s ready to make changes as needed.  “This is like battlefield medicine.  I’m giving you a report from the front lines.”  For older people he plans to hit them harder with HCQ to prevent them from going to the hospital. 

Will patients be all better at the end of treatment?  No, they will likely still feel miserable.  But success in this case is “not to die,” in Dr. Zelenko’s words.  The treatment is “not going to take away your fever, you’re still going to be coughing, you’re still going to be tired, you’re gonna have a headache, you’re going to be upset, you’re going to call me ‘It’s not working’ — but I’m looking at it differently. If you can call me, that’s a good sign.”

What does this cocktail actually do if it doesn’t relieve the symptoms?  “Let me tell you what I believe it does,” Dr. Zelenko said.  “It reduces the amount of virus the body is infected with by interfering with its growth, giving the immune system time to overcome it before it destroys the lungs.”

He goes on to say that “We’re running out of capacity to treat patients in the hospital.  You need to stay out of the hospital!”  He further adds that “many doctors are coming on board.  They are having similar results.”  He thanks President Trump for approving the use of this drug — “We have to make America healthy again,” he said.

Government might be exploiting the crisis, but the virus is a real killer.  If it gets into the lungs, its effect on the tissue is like “napalm or carpet-bombing.”  Once the virus kills the cells it invades, there are dead bodies, so to speak, that “get shed down instead of up.  It’s like pouring cement into the lungs.”  In most cases, however, the immune system will overcome the infection before the infection kills the lungs.

For information on how to strengthen your immunity see this Bill Sardi article.

George Ford Smith is the author of eight books, including The Flight of the Barbarous Relic, Eyes of Fire: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution, and The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty.  He is also a filmmaker whose latest work is a whimsical tale about the threat of nuclear annihilation, Last Day.