‘I thought the risk of seeing 15% of that nursing home die was just not an acceptable…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The medical director at a Texas nursing home said he’s successfully used hydroxychloroquine, a well-known anti-malarial drug, to treat 39 coronavirus patients.
The scientific community and the mainstream media have been skeptical toward hydroxychloroquine, which could help the body fight off COVID-19, according to numerous doctors.
But Dr. Robin Armstrong, the medical director at The Resort nursing home, said each of the patients to whom he’s prescribed hydroxychloroquine recovered from the coronavirus within five days.
“I thought the risk of seeing 15% of that nursing home die was just not an acceptable,” Armstrong told WFAA-TV.
“Most of the patients have done well,” he continued. “And, you know, and I think that that is suggestive that the medication is helpful.”
Hydroxychloroquine isn’t a cure, Armstrong added, but it could have therapeutic effects for patients with severe cases of COVID-19.
“The people who are on it were still getting sicker, but were not so sick that they had to go to the hospital,” Armstrong told NPR, adding that he believes hydroxychloroquine helped speed his patients’ recovery process.
Armstrong admitted that he, too, was skeptical of the drug’s use at first, but now that he’s seen the benefits firsthand he said he will be more likely to recommend the drug to patients.
“When this hydroxychloroquine came out, I was a bit skeptical,” he explained, “because I know the World Health Organization actually was not initially including it in their study, because they didn’t think that it was very effective.”
Trump has touted the drug as a “game changer” in the fight against COVID-19.
If it wasn’t for Trump, Armstrong said, it’s unlikely the medical community would have even thought to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to coronavirus patients.
And if they had thought to do so, there wouldn’t be any political controversy surrounding the drug’s use, he said.
“I don’t think this would even be a conversation, honestly,” Armstrong said.