CNN 'Surprised' By Success of Hydroxychloroquine, Drug Originally Suggested by Trump

CNN slipped a tweet into the public record early Friday morning that is getting plenty of attention after the network news channel spent considerable amount of time dragging President Trump for touting an antimalarial drug, Hydroxychloroquine, as a possible game-changer in the fight against coronavirus. A new study from the Henry Ford Health System finds the drug "helped patients better survive in the hospital," according to CNN's interpretation of the report. The results of the study were published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

After spending much of the spring battling President Trump over the drug's efficacy, this has to be tough pill to swallow for a network that trotted out expert after expert to say Trump was wrong. "A team at Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan said Thursday its study of 2,541 hospitalized patients found that those given hydroxychloroquine were much less likely to die."

Yes, there have been studies that have found that patients suffered cardiac side effects, but the Henry Ford Health System says it believes there was a difference between its study and others.

"What we think was important in ours ... is that patients were treated early. For hydroxychloroquine to have a benefit, it needs to begin before the patients begin to suffer some of the severe immune reactions that patients can have with Covid," Dr. Zervos added.

The Macomb Daily, a metro Detroit newspaper, found this interesting nugget from the study: "A secondary result indicates that black patients who were part of the study died at a lower rate than white patients, which counters national reports that blacks suffer more from COVID-19, officials said. Blacks have contracted the novel coronavirus at a higher rate that other groups."

You can read the full report from Henry Ford Health right here.

Now we get to see how much attention CNN gives to this study. It's great news, right? But will CNN be humble enough to report it as great news or will they keep trucking with the fear porn that keeps people petrified in front of their TVs? The right thing to do here is for CNN to bring on the Henry Ford researchers, share the results and learn why it's working inside the southeast Michigan health system.

It's 4th of July weekend. The show hosts who railed against hydroxy are likely on a Long Island beach sucking down margaritas. Don't hold your breath this gets the attention it deserves this weekend.


















Critics of the study, such as Eli Rosenberg, associate professor of epidemiology at the University at Albany School of Public Health, say the results could be skewed because the results "excluded 267 patients -- nearly 10% of the study population -- who had not yet been discharged from the hospital."







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Joe Kinsey is the Senior Director of Content of OutKick and the editor of the Morning Screencaps column that examines a variety of stories taking place in real America. Kinsey is also the founder of OutKick’s Thursday Night Mowing League, America’s largest virtual mowing league. Kinsey graduated from University of Toledo.