FDA in Hot Seat by Senators’ Demands on HCQ and HHS Pulling Rank on Tests
Corey's Digs
Aug 24, 2020

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On August 18, 2020, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) submitted a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn, demanding information regarding their actions taken on the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. “Physicians are concerned that the FDA’s actions regarding hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) may be directly costing lives by limiting outpatient access to this potentially beneficial treatment,” the letter stated.

The senators wrote that the FDA’s actions on HCQ have “led to misinformation and confusion across the country. Some states have restricted the ability of physicians to write and pharmacies to fill HCQ and CQ prescriptions.” The senators are correct in that the FDA has done a fine job of creating confusion, as Corey’s Digs has been documenting their actions on HCQ since the beginning of this “pandemic.” This also comes on the heels of the historical 24-hour censoring takedown of America’s Frontline Doctors, who have been fighting to get critical information out on the benefits of HCQ.

The senators point out that “the licensed physicians we have heard from… have pointed to the low mortality rates in other countries—like India, Turkey, South Korea, and Morocco—that are using HCQ widely on outpatient COVID-19 populations before the disease progresses to more lethal stages of the virus that require hospitalization.”

They have given the FDA a deadline of 5:00 p.m. on August 25, 2020 to submit information on the following requests:

• Please provide any studies and data that informed the FDA’s apparent determination that giving HCQ or CQ to COVID-19 infected outpatients within seven days from the onset of symptoms, under a doctor’s supervision, will have no clinical effect and may be harmful to the patient.

• Please provide any scientific studies, medical papers and data involving COVID-19 outpatients that have started HCQ or CQ under a doctor’s supervision and begun in the ambulatory care outpatient setting. This includes post-exposure outpatient treatment and/or pre-exposure prophylaxis. This should not include late stage studies involving patients started on HCQ while in hospital.

• Please provide and public statements or records that FDA has issued to clarify that the FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine and that state governments may not regulate the sale or prohibit the sale of prescription drugs.

• Please provide any potential treatments for COVID-19 that have been utilized internationally, whether those treatments are authorized or approved by the FDA, and what steps the FDA has taken to ensure that these treatments are available in the U.S.