An uncomfortable Flagler County School Board this afternoon approved a new school-year calendar tailored to the coronavirus crisis. But it did so on a 4-1 vote on the understanding that it would revisit the calendar in September or October for revisions that could apply to the second semester.
The special meeting ended in a whirl of unanswered questions about the threshold that would trigger more delays or remote-only instruction, and in yet more outright false information spoken by Chairman Janet McDonald, who cited as factual bogus claims in a viral video that’s been banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The new calendar pushes the first day of school to Aug. 24 and ends the school year two days late in June. Teachers would have to report on Aug. 10 for two weeks of planning and training. The new calendar will still have 179 instructional days for students, a reduction of just one day from the previous calendar, and 196 instructional days for teachers–no reduction. But it does so at the cost of eight teacher work and professional working days, and at the cost of several off days for students, whose Thanksgiving, winter and spring breaks will shrink.
There was unanimity over the delayed start, which also echoed overwhelming public support for a delay, much of it supporting delays longer than two weeks. No one addressed the board in person, but Board Attorney Kristy Gavin spent a long portion of the meeting reading nine pages of single-spaced public comments–37 comments in all–sent in by parents, teachers and service employees, almost all of them calling for delays, some to Labor Day, some to January.
“In the beginning,” Julia Foust told the board, “I opted for my daughter to go to school and do face to face learning. But now with how things have been changing drastically and turning even more worrisome, I don’t think I even want her going to school at all. I feel pushing the start date further out isn’t going to matter. Schools should not be starting just yet at all.”
Much of the focus of covid’s disruptions of schools has focused on students, faculty and parents, with relatively little attention paid service employees–cafeteria workers, bus drivers, teacher aides and the like–who have far fewer options to apply alternative work models, and who make far less money than instructional staff.
Joseph Schneider told the board: “I have been a Flagler County school bus driver for 20 years and honestly cannot wait to get back to work and see many of the kids I have met throughout the years, but not under these circumstances. If you think teachers are afraid to go back, what do you think bus drivers and aides are feeling? if you think a mask is going to help us on a bus in that small confined space then you are sadly mistaken. If one student is sick from covid we are all in trouble and could possibly die. Not only should schools not reopen but there should be no transportation at all, the school board has the power to keep schools shut down and should do so. I personally will not let anyone play Russian roulette with my life. Please wait until the numbers have stabilized for a required amount of time before reopening and as always, without bus drivers and aides there is no transportation.”
The board did not address the comments, shifting immediately to a discussion of the calendar. It was uncomfortable with details of the plan because of the elimination of teacher work days and because of the denseness of the calendar as a whole. But the administration is balancing the need to fit in the required amount of instructional time with limited dollars: the state is not making any extra money available to go along with its order to districts to reopen, and federal aid money connected to the covid crisis is limited.
“To extend the calendar by another week is going to be an additional cost for those teachers in additional pay,” Gavin said.
Board member Colleen Conklin, the lone vote against the proposal, was concerned about the teacher work days “being gone, and there’s zero time in this calendar for teachers to do grading, planning, inputting grades, all the things that they do on that teacher work day, I’m really concerned about that. That’s a tremendous amount of work” expected to be done on teachers’ own time. But she clarified: she was not opposed to pushing the opening of school back two weeks.
Earl Johnson, a senior administrator and the point man on the calendar committee, said it was discussed with teachers, who agreed with it so as not to extend the year further. Conklin said she was “shocked” that that would be the case. (There were three teachers on the calendar committee.) “A lot of the grading is done essentially prior to that day,” Johnson said.
“It seems like a very dense schedule, I’m wondering about relief for students as well as for teachers,” Janet McDonald, who chairs the board, said, suggesting half days. Johnson said it would require adjusting the entire calendar if that were accommodated. “I was going to suggest that we not have a spring break” or “shorten it up a little bit,” McDonald said.
Cathy Mittelstadt, the superintendent, said the administration could return to the calendar committee and “perhaps get the teachers’ voice lifted back up.” She said the goal is to preserve instructional time, but also to be mindful of costs. There is some potential federal aid to defray the costs, but not much, she said.
The board after over an hour’s discussion agreed to approve the delayed opening and the reworked calendar. But Conklin, as she had at a previous workshop, again raised an elephant-in-the-room type of question: at what point does the school district consider going fully remote with education. “What are the trigger points?” she asked. “Is someone going to come out and provide us with–here’s a recommended positivity rate?” She was pointing out the dearth of any available standards the district could apply, and could tack on to the calendar to provide guidance to employees and students.
“It would be nice to have as a state that there is a uniform threshold, not just for Flagler County but for everybody,” Conklin said, which would then trigger “a certain level of response.” She said that guidance should be coming from the health department, the governor’s office or the Centers for Disease Control.
David Bossardet, the district’s risk manager, said no such numbers or standards have been defined. He said he communicates daily with the local health department to go over the numbers. But there’s no sharp clarity on standards, particularly since the CDC has issued conflicting messages–its original school-reopening plan was cautious and guarded until President Trump ordered it to issue a more permissive plan, which it did last week–and the state has punted the responsibility to school districts.
The state health department reports that 55 Flagler County children have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic out of 545 tested, a positivity rate of 10.1 percent. The majority of the cases have been confirmed during the summer surge.
It was then that McDonald, who’s frequently posted or retweeted false claims to her twitter account and used her position on the board to broadcast them, did so again today: “If you didn’t see it, it may still be up online, but Frontline Doctors had a wonderful conference, and they had a wonderful press conference yesterday,” McDonald said, referring to a video featuring people in white lab coats and speaking in the guise of a press conference in front of the United States Supreme Court building. “The entire thing about positivity rates is alarming, because people think it means death down the road. What they said was, it really just means we’re developing herd immunity, which is a great thing. These are not people that are hospitalized, that’s not people that are dying, so a positivity rate has a good impact if it doesn’t advance, and they also were talking about wonderful things are happening.”
McDonald’s claim about the positivity rate building herd immunity was addressed previously by Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler and Volusia county health departments: it would take years to reach herd immunity, and to do so as a strategy would inevitably lead to an enormous death toll, though that death toll is already evident: the disease has claimed close to 150,000 people in five months in the United States and 660,000 worldwide.
“This idea that people keep bringing up about herd immunity it’s frankly laughable in my opinion,” Bickel said in May. Herd immunity–when enough people have developed immunity to a disease that it cannot propagate efficiently anymore–is believed to kick in at around 60 to 70 percent, or at 200 million people. Even at a 0.5 percent death rate for those infected, “that’s a million people. Are we prepared to let that happen? To have that debate would be fine if it really was a choice between one and the other,” Bickel said. But there is a third choice, in his (and other scientists’) view: prevention by relatively simple means, among them mask-wearing.
The video McDonald referred to made other false claims, including against masks. “This virus has a cure, it’s called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax,” a woman in the video claims. “You don’t need masks, there is a cure. I know they don’t want to open schools. No, you don’t need people to be locked down. There is prevention and there is a cure.” No public health agency or reputable physicians or scientists say there is a cure–though there is a massive effort under way to develop a vaccine–and claims about hydroxychloroquine have been contradicted by several studies aside from two studies that were discredited for being shoddy.
The “frontline doctors” video was reposted by President Trump and his son, whose twitter account was suspended for 12 hours for doing so. It is so riddled with falsehoods and potentially harmful claims that all major social media platforms banned it. “Tweets with the video are in violation of our Covid-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy here,” Twitter told the BBC.
But the video continues to circulate widely and has taken its place among other emblems of defiance, usually right-wing, to the more fact-based and preventive approach about covid-19.
McDonald went on to talk about eating well and building up immunity to covid until Board member Trevor Tucker jumped in. “Can we get back to a point of order here? This is getting way off the topic into health.”
“I just wanted to put it in perspective from one more piece of data,” McDonald said.
“I get that, I just feel like we’re getting into a tangent outside of this instructional calendar.”
Perhaps McDonald–who moments before today’s special meeting was upbraided by a prosecutor and a circuit judge for calling a local jury trial and conviction of a former supervisor of elections a “travesty”–had missed the comment by Alex Giorgianni, a district faculty member who’d submitted remarks that Gavin had read earlier: “Data driven is a term used often in schools,” Giorgianni had said. “In a time when data is so vital to the safety and well being of our students, faculty, and staff, it appears the data is being ignored. Just this past week, the state of Florida experienced a surge of 7,980 new cases of covid-19 in children under the age of 17. If a 34 percent increase in cases amongst children occurred a few weeks before school starts, what will those number look like in a month, when schools all across the state open for business? Children are our future, and it is our job to keep them protected and safe above anything else. How can we, as educators, willingly play a part in putting them at risk? Last year, I was closely impacted by the tragic loss of one of our students. Seeing my students and athletes physically and emotionally shattered was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. If we proceed with this plan, I feel like that experience will be felt by every single person in Flagler county. The cost of even one child’s life is not a price I am willing to pay.”
Kathleen says
I am happy to read that they were adults in the room that could provide good information/factual data. And I am also grateful that Colleen Conklin spoke up and addressed the elephant in the room. When does Janet and MacDonald come up for reelection? She is not fit to be a school board member.
Eva Mowry says
You can say that again!! It is stunning that this woman continues with misinformation and ignorance.
Steve says
Lol What a piece of work. Betcha cant wait until she comes up for Reelection. You all will probably vote her on again. What a disgrace. Dont let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy false narrative theory.
ASF says
Both the McDonald’s’s could build their own railroads, with materials mined from inside their own heads.
Thank you Conklin says
So grateful that Conklin was speaking up on behalf of the teachers. She was concerned with teachers having time to plan and grade. Things that most of the rest of the parties involved clearly did not care about. Conklin even voiced reviewing teachers regaining daily planning time during the school day. At least one person cares about those giving the instruction. The rest only care about making things fit, regardless of how it impacts those on the front lines. McDonald brought up canceling spring break and shortening Christmas break. Talk about having no concern for Teachers and students. Can’t wait until her election cycle.
Percy's mother says
The video referred to in this article was broadcast on Breitbart and perhaps other conservative news sources, and is most likely still available for review. Just because it was banned on Facebook, Twitter and the regular networks, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have anything to offer.
There are those who live in a 2 dimensional world (most people). Others live in a 3 or 4 dimensional universe. Neither are/is wrong, just different levels of growth and time spent in spiritual pursuit. “You” and others might think Janet McDonald is a nut, though you probably wouldn’t go traipsing around the Himalayas in Tibet looking for the ascended masters or you wouldn’t be caught dead visiting an ashram for a month of fasting and prayer. Many, many people however do participate in this way of life. It serves to elevate the mind and create mental clarity. I feel that neither way of life is ‘wrong” or “nuts”. Just different views and a different way of life. No one should be negated for either way of life.
I really do get sick and tired of un-evolved people (and by that I mean, people who’ve lived a very limited life) negating and putting down people who live their lives on a different level of spirituality. For those who don’t, you could never begin to understand what I’m talking about here.
That being said, I really don’t understand what all the continual complaining and fuss is about by parents, bus drivers, teachers, etc. No child is being forced to return to school “in person”. Any student can stay at home with adequate internet connection and pursue a normal school year without all the negatives that go along with being stuck in a brick and mortar school building . . . some of those negatives would be bullying, disruptive behavior, having to wear a uniform, adhering to a particular schedule, again I repeat bullying, etc. I’ve talked to kids in my neighborhood and they’re happy to have been given the opportunity to go to school from home.
Have any parents thought outside the box if they have to go to work and leave their kids unsupervised at home to do remote school? How about a group of parents getting together and hiring a “monitor” for their children for a group remote school season? A group of parents could hire a retired educator or a teacher who’s left the business at a reasonable monetary rate as a group endeavor to monitor their kids during their “at school times” so the parents could continue to go out to work. 10 or 15 students meeting daily on the regular school schedule “remote” could be monitored by one adult, with each parent chipping in say $10.00 each. Add it up. Pretty good pay to be an at-home monitor for remote students. But this kind of out of the box thinking and problem solving wouldn’t allow the complaining parents to keep complaining and bitching about everything.
By the way, the school system as a whole nationally is still functioning on an industrial revolution model from the early 1900s. Perhaps its long overdue for a complete change in the way school is run. But then again, the teacher’s unions most likely wouldn’t allow that, and that’s a big part of the problem. Also, with the advent of remote everything, I think it’s actually time to get rid of brick and mortar schools. It would save a hell of a lot of taxpayer money. But again, the unions wouldn’t allow actual PROGRESS.
Time for me to transport myself to the Himalayas in search of the ascended masters. Perhaps I’ll see Janet McDonald on my travels.
By the way, I have never met or communicated with Janet McDonald.
Eva Mowry says
Here’s a news flash for you, the adults in the room from all walks of life have evolved, it is you who is rambling and misinformed. It’s so exhausting to keep trying to educate the close-minded.
Edith Campins says
So, perhaps this will help you in your “evolution”.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hails-demon-sperm-doc-dr-stella-immanuel-as-important-voice-in-nations-covid-19-battle?fbclid=IwAR13gqk0oOQtIHVEYUU7lk5ix8090Dhu0QFHBF0Jy5dY9W8FCQXPeq9rkQ0
Citizen says
this is the most pretentious comment i’ve ever seen. poor percy.
Thanks for the update says
Good to know. You and the McDonald’s and others like you think you are better than the rest of us. We, the two dimensionals.
Concerned Citizen says
@ Percy’s Mother
It must be nice to live such an enlightened life. And look down at others less achieving. Here I thought I accomplished something serving my country and then a life long career in Public Safety. All the while finishing up school and striving for a teaching career. Only to find out I’m (two diminsional).
Online learning might be great for the children. Heaven forbid they should have to learn to follow a schedule and (gasp) maybe wear a uniform instead of baggy pants and expensive UnderArmor clothing to “look cool”. But has anyone stopped to think of the financial strain placed on already money tight familes? Some of my friends are still unemployed or down to a single income. And are counting on school starting back. Are you willing to help pay for these monitors you’re suggesting?
Finally I have witnessed the McDonalds behavior in this county over the past few years. And to say it’s embarrassing is putting it mildly. Both could do our county a big favor and return to private life.
Outsider says
” But there is a third choice, in his (and other scientists’) view: prevention by relatively simple means, among them mask-wearing. ” So, tell me again, why do we have to shut down the schools??
Cory says
Because the infection rate is through the roof from indulging idiots too long. Once we get it back under control, masks and social distance along with testing should be utilized to facilitate safely and slowly reopening.
Lance Carroll says
Three cheers for Colleen Conklin.
information says
just so everyone knows the district has been on an 179 day school year for a couple of years.
John F. pollinger says
Ok, for those who actually care about this press conference and doctor, including MacDonald and Percy’s Mother, here she is:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-immanuel-trumps-new-covid-doctor-believes-in-alien-dna-demon-sperm-and-hydroxychloroquine
A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video.
Before Trump and his supporters embrace Immanuel’s medical expertise, though, they should consider other medical claims Immanuel has made—including those about alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams.
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Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.
She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.
Immanuel gave her viral speech on the steps of the Supreme Court at the “White Coat Summit,” a gathering of a handful of doctors who call themselves America’s Frontline Doctors and dispute the medical consensus on the novel coronavirus. The event was organized by the right-wing group Tea Party Patriots, which is backed by wealthy Republican donors.
In her speech, Immanuel alleges that she has successfully treated hundreds of patients with hydroxychloroquine, a controversial treatment Trump has promoted and says he has taken himself. Studies have failed to find proof that the drug has any benefit in treating COVID-19, and the Food and Drug Administration in June revoked its emergency authorization to use it to treat the deadly virus, saying it hadn’t demonstrated any effect on patients’ mortality prospects.
“Nobody needs to get sick,” Immanuel said. “This virus has a cure.”
Immanuel said in her speech that the supposed potency of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment means that protective face masks aren’t necessary, claiming that she and her staff had avoided contracting COVID-19 despite wearing medical masks instead of the more secure N95 masks.
“Hello, you don’t need a mask. There is a cure,” Immanuel said.
Toward the end of Immanuel’s speech, the event’s organizer and other participants can be seen trying to get her away from the microphone. But footage of the speech captured by Breitbart was a hit online, becoming a top video on Facebook and amassing roughly 13 million views—significantly more than “Plandemic,” another coronavirus disinformation video that became a viral hit online in May, when it amassed roughly 8 million Facebook views.
“Hydroxychloroquine” trended on Twitter, as Immanuel’s video was embraced by the Trumps, conservative student group Turning Point USA, and pro-Trump personalities like Diamond & Silk. But both Facebook and Twitter eventually deleted videos of Immanuel’s speech from their sites, citing rules against COVID-19 disinformation. The deletions set off yet another round of complaints by conservatives of bias at the social-media platforms.
Immanuel responded in her own way, declaring that Jesus Christ would destroy Facebook’s servers if her videos weren’t restored to the platform.
Edith Campins says
So McConald is referring to the video, promoted by trump, which features Dr. Stella Immanuel. She is the pediatrician with no experience whatsoever on infection diseases who also believes that dreaming of demons can give you diseases, that the government is secretly vaccinating people with alien DNA to make people anti religious, claims she has cured over 300 people of Covid, although she can’t produce a single individual to back up her claims, and says wearing of masks is not necesary because he has the cure. The only consolation is that only trump followers will believe her and we can do without them in the gene pool. P. S. she has only been praticing medicine sine 2019.
Angela Biggs says
The CDC has a clear recommended guideline of no more than 5% positivity rate for the safe reopening of schools. The problem is Trump/Devos continues to push and threaten to withhold school funding so this scares some Governors (not all) into telling Superintendents/boards that funding will be cut if schools do not open face-to-face in August. Trump and Devos can not take money from schools. If Governors and the Education Commissioners would put their foot down to Trump/Devos they could keep his from happening. Desantis has put everyone in this difficult situation. Schools are not safe enough and there is not enough money and time to prepare to meet the CDC guidelines. Bus drivers, food workers, paraprofessional, janitors, and all other hourly wage school staff do not make get paid enough to afford missed paychecks, sick time and medical bills due to catching this virus. They could also pass it to their loved ones. This is just not right. It is unethical and creating much unneeded stress and anxiety. There are students, school workers, teachers, and administration that have compromised immunity systems. I do not know how I would live with myself if I was to unknowingly pass the virus a student and then they were to bring it home. Or how can we put that stress on a child who may contract it at school, pass it to their best friend, parent, grandparent etc. What if any of them were to die? Could you live with this? The school district needs to do the safest thing and open virtually for the first semester (Jan.). This will give time to safely prepare, finish the vaccine development, and most importantly save lives. I know some parents are desperate to get back to work and feed their family. The district and community could work together to help single and low income parents who need teacher/caregivers and provide jobs at the same time. I know this would be an added expense that the district has not planned for at this time. As a teacher who has a compromised immunity system I want to teach virtually until there is a vaccine for my health and my family. I know there are other teachers who feel the same and some do not. But, I am scared for my family, myself, my students and my peers. I can not speak for others in community, but if the district were to go fully online digital learning until January I would donate $1000.00 dollars to create a fund for parents in need of hiring a home teacher/caregiver. Obviously, my money would not be enough so it would take a community effort. It is just a thought.
marlee says
Percy’s Mother…
huh?????????????????????????????????????????????
My head is exploding.
This is a troll, right?
Darksideofthemoon says
Percy mother I commend – nicely stated! But we often don’t explore ulterior motives – censorship! How can Americans sit back and watch Google Twitter Nextdoor control what we see? This is what the Chinese do, you are aware of that right? If I want to hear some else’s viewpoint we should be “free” to do that- it’s controlled propaganda-pure and simple
Dennis C Rathsam says
Its time for Janet,to go! Her lies will hurt our kids! she is trying to undermine all the good the board has done in the past. Her anti vaccines agenda is WRONG!!!! Every doctor in the US is for vaccines, I think its time to impeach her, and move foward with new fresh leadership. A leader that believes in Science, & doctors!
Sherry says
Janet Mc Donald strikes again. This is the latest in the garbage she has raked up from her bizarre life lived on social media. Do just a little research on Front Line Doctors, also promoted by trump, and you’ll turn up this sheer craziness about “demons” and “alien DNA”, etc. etc. etc. Take a good read, and then tell me it is OK to join that “3 or 4 dimensional universe” and vote for trump and McDonald again:
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube removed a viral video of the event which had garnered millions of views after President Trump and others retweeted the clip. SquareSpace also suspended the website for America’s Frontline Doctors, which put on the event. The video featuring the eccentric Dr. Stella Immanuel, who claimed that the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was a “cure” for COVID-19 and that masks aren’t necessary, was pulled from the platforms for sharing misinformation about the disease. Twitter also briefly locked the Twitter account of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., when he tweeted the video and called it a “must watch!!!”
The viral video, which racked up more than 13 million views on Facebook, drew more attention to some of Immanuel’s more bizarre previous medical claims. The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that Immanuel has claimed in the past that some gynecological ailments are caused by people having sex in a dream-world with demons, with the demonic semen as the origins of the afflictions.
Immanuel has also claimed that doctors used alien DNA in medical treatments.
Is this the “reality” you are willing to accept? Really?
coyote says
Dear Ms. McDonald ….
Here’s a few more of the claims of “Doctor” Stella Immanuel. How many of them do you *also* subscribe to – seeing as how you seem to think that undocumented “facts” and white coats make good medical advice ?
========== Cut and pastes from news sources follows ==================
But Immanuel, who is a licensed physician in Texas, according to the Texas Medical Board, has previously claimed on YouTube and in articles on her website that gynecological problems, such as endometriosis, cysts and infertility, are caused by individuals having sex with demons and witches in their dreams.
Immanuel’s claims were first reported by The Daily Beast.
Immanuel has said in sermons on YouTube that widespread gynecological issues are caused by sexual contact with “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives.”
Immanuel said in a 2015 sermon that alien DNA is used in medical treatments. In another 2015 sermon, she claimed that researchers are currently working on a vaccine to prevent individuals from being religious.
In the same 2015 sermon in which she referenced alien DNA, she said the government is run by “reptilians,” not humans.
She has also said that popular children’s television shows and toys are being used to expose children to witches and spirits. She specifically cited the Harry Potter series, Pokémon, the shows “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Hannah Montana,” and more. She also said that Magic 8 Ball toys introduce children to witches.
==== End paste ===========
I call BS on the “disseminating various points of view” claim of Ms. McDonald.
It’s tinfoil hat time again, girls and boys.
CB from PC says
The mission of Flagler County Education “Powers that be” is to provide students with a place to learn
After 4 months, there still is no action plan to ‘re-open the schools.
Some kids will have to be physically at school if for no other reasons than special needs or no internet access.
So get with the program and provide that for which you are responsible.
And no one really cares about the videos except those who miss the point of what is happening.
Sherry says
Looks like Pence actually met with those “Wackos” ! This entire administration has now entered crazy town and brought the likes of Janet McDonald and some of those commenting here (from the 3rd and 4th dimensions) with them:
Vice President Mike Pence and members of his staff met Tuesday with some of the doctors who were featured in a video that was later removed from social media for misinformation, those doctors said on Wednesday.
The video, which was shared by President Donald Trump before being removed, featured members of the group America’s Frontline Doctors standing on the steps of the Supreme Court claiming that masks aren’t necessary to prevent the spread of coronavirus and promoting hydroxychloroquine as a cure. Both claims are contradicted by scientific studies.
The most prominent person featured in the video, Stella Immanuel — who has said in the past that DNA from space aliens is being used in medicine — did not meet with Pence.
But several others who have actively promoted hydroxychloroquine and downplayed the virus did participate in the late afternoon meeting in the White House Roosevelt Room, as did the head of a conservative activist group who has helped amplify their message.
“We have just met with Vice President Mike Pence to request the administration’s assistance in empowering doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine without political obstruction,” Simone Gold, the group’s leader, tweeted. “We also discussed the recent censorship of doctors on social media platforms.”
Kim Pandich-Gridley says
You may not be able to get rid of McDonald for another two years but you can certainly limit her power by voting her puppet, Barbosa, out this August. Please don’t complain about her antics after the election if you haven’t voted for someone like Cheryl Massaro who will take her on!
Outsider says
I first heard of success with hydroxychloroquine back in March when a physician from Stanford related the experiences of doctors in France. He said the French doctors implored him to disseminate the information, and said it would be “immoral” for the information to be withheld. It only became controversial when Trump mentioned it. I know of one person personally who had a relative recover almost immediately after taking it. A peer-reviewed study in Michigan showed it cut the death rate in half in hospitalized patients. It certainly is not a dangerous drug; my daughter has lupus, and her doctor, who is among the best in her field, was going to put my daughter on hydroxychloroquine. The only concern the doctor had was that there is potential eye damage with long term use. Only liberals will put the opportunity to damage Trump over the health and freedom of choice between a doctor and patient.
https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2020/07/06/henry-ford-health-system-studyhttps:/detroit.cbslocal.com/2020/07/06/henry-ford-health-system-study-hydroxychloroquine-lowers-covid-19-death-rate/-hydroxychloroquine-lowers-covid-19-death-rate/
Kathleen says
Please recognize that that was a small study and the results of that were not replicated in larger studies. I would absolutely love to see plaquenil turn out to be an effective treatment (It is relatively inexpensive and easily accessible as well as easy to administer) but the evidence shows only a very small benefit. And while the drug is well tolerated by many, I myself have been on it for 10 years, it can have serious cardiac complications. In some patients, Covid can also cause serious heart and other organ damage.
Sherry says
May 27, 2020:
The French government is revoking a decree that had allowed hospitals to prescribe hydroxychloroquine in some COVID-19 cases, saying there is no proof that it helps patients — and citing data that shows it could cause heart problems and other health risks.
“This molecule must not be prescribed for patients affected by COVID-19,” the Ministry of Solidarity and Health said as it announced the change.
The move to bar hospitals from prescribing the drug for coronavirus patients comes two days after the World Health Organization halted clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. The WHO cited a study published in The Lancet, that had found no benefit from the drug and reported a higher mortality rate for hospitalized patients and “an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias.”
France’s health ministry had approved hydroxychloroquine for emergency prescriptions in COVID-19 cases in late March.
As France 24 reports, that’s when French researcher Didier Raoult, who has been an insistent proponent of hydroxychloroquine, said he had successfully treated COVID-19 patients using the controversial drug in combination with azithromycin. But the health ministry says recent studies show the treatment can produce “cardiac toxicity, particularly in combination with azithromycin.”