The Science & Media Lies About Quinine, Chloroquine & HCQ

Written by John O'Sullivan on August 2, 2020. Posted in Current News

Last week we learned of the ‘Mysterious ‘Suicide’ Of Dr. Fauci’s Right-Hand Man At NIAID. The news is stirring fresh talk of Fauci’s mendacity as it coincides with further clinical results showing the quinine family of drugs – chloroquine and HCQ – are effective against COVID-19.

Rather than being the medical saint depicted by the media bravely leading the White House Coronavirus Task Force, incompetent/corrupt Dr Anthony Fauci is guilty of no fewer than ‘15 Deadly COVID-19 Errors.’

Perhaps the worst Fauci foul up is the story from April that ‘Fauci knew about HCQ in 2005 — nobody needed to die’ (Bryan Fischer, April 27, 2020). The worst because Fischer had rightly exposed a cover up but his revelation was swiftly ‘fact fake check’ bombed by the mainstream.

On the very same day Fischer posted his damning ‘Fauci Knew‘ story the left-wing blog Politifact.com rushed out a counter story that succeeded in quelling public interest in the back story of this virus.

By the quick action, Politifact.com and author Daniel Funke pulled off a neat smoke and mirrors job and deflected the light from where it most needed shining: on the safe and cheap drug hydroxychloroquine, proven efficacious in treating coronavirus 15 years ago.

Their conclusory and scientifically cherry-picked ‘fact fake check’ was thereafter widely deployed to quell claims that Dr Fauci already knew (or should have known) of the remarkable properties of Chloroquine (Hydroxychloroquine) on coronavirus.

The first part of their ploy was persuading the public to believe SARS-CoV-1 (commonly called ‘SARS’) was not at all like SARS-CoV-2 (commonly called ‘COVID-19’).

Once we swallowed that crock, the ploy’s second part was to have us believe the drug from 2005 “Fauci knew about” (choloroquine) is nothing like hydroxychloroquine (President Trump’s CV19 ‘game changing’ wonder drug) and thus irrelevant.

The media largely succeeded with this double gambit – until now…..

The 2005 study in question is from Virology Journal, a publication of BioMed Central, which is owned by Springer Nature. [1]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) indexes and archives these publications. Dr Fauci was head of NIH when this study came through. Even if Fauci wasn’t personally aware of it, he would be advised of it by colleagues once the pandemic hit home hard in March.

So, the Politifact.com article began:

“A widely shared conspiracy theory on Facebook alleges that Dr. Anthony Fauci is knowingly advocating against a treatment for the novel coronavirus.

An April 27 article says the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has known since 2005 that hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat conditions like lupus and arthritis, is effective against coronaviruses like the one that causes COVID-19.”

However, the smoke and mirrors of author, Daniel Funke, was in conveniently failing to reveal that:

(a) chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are both pharmaceutical derivatives of quinine and;

(b) the 2005 SARS and 2019/20 viruses share nomenclature classification because they are closely related.

Funke must have known what he was doing from his cited references. Prominent among them is the article ‘COVID-19 vs. SARS: How Do They Differ?’ (April 2, 2020) from healthline.com which reveals that virologists admit:

“Both COVID-19 and SARS are caused by coronaviruses. The virus that causes SARS is known as SARS-CoV-1, while the virus that causes COVID-19 is known as SARS-CoV-2. There are also other types of human coronaviruses.” [emphasis added]

You don’t need to be a virologist to appreciate the obvious connection here: SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2

Indeed, get past the COVID-19 name and identify the original classification, not just in the reference above, but since January 2020 scientists repeatedly identified that the new virus “is related to SARS-CoV-1” [2]

While Funke’s cited sources in his footnotes openly reveal the connection, he and politifact.com opted to bury this crucial fact in footnotes and not highlight it in the body of his article.

On its own, this one ‘oversight’ is insufficient to conclusively prove a motive to deceive.

But Mr Funke then goes on to compound that ‘oversight’ with a second; glibly telling readers that chloroquine is “a different drug” from hydroxychloroquine. He merely left it at that, failing to reveal the key fact both are pharmaceutically from the same family of drugs (under quinine).

So, of course, anyone falling for such horse sheet would opine:

 “But, but, but that’s chloroquine, not hydroxychloroquine, and it’s SARS, not Covid-19”

Non-experts were easily duped. They didn’t understand that the ‘hydroxy’ addition makes the treatment safer and more readily absorbed, and would work just as well in combating SARS and Covid-19 – from the same family of viruses.

Do a search on Google Scholar on the topic. You will learn that:

“Chloroquine and the 4-aminoquinoline drug hydroxychloroquine belong to the same molecular family [quinine]. Hydroxychloroquine differs from chloroquine by the presence of a hydroxyl group at the end of the side chain: the N-ethyl substituent is β-hydroxylated.” [2]

Hydroxychloroquine gradually replaced chloroquine mostly because:

“Unfortunately, the efficacy of chloroquine gradually declined due to the continuous emergence of chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum strains.” [3]

Thus, beyond all doubt, SARS-CoV-1 (‘SARS’) from 2005 and SARS-CoV-2 (‘COVID-19’) in 2020 are closely related and virologists knew that a proven therapy for SARS (virus-1) must be a prime candidate to use against virus-2.

Politifact.com and their msm co-conspirators dodged explaining the details – at the behest of their paymasters – in favor of their top story about the search for a completely new and expensive vaccine (via Bill Gates). But in the real world experts were aware of an altogether cheaper and quicker route via a re-purposed old medication which was shown to be effective as a treatment for SARS in 2005 (chloroquine).

Independent researchers thus realized – with high probability – these re-purposed cheap drugs could prove successful, so dozens of studies to validate the issue ensued. But the msm only wanted to focus on negative and largely fake stories to discredit HCQ, as detailed very well by www.investmentwatchblog.com

Not to be outdone by the fake news media, the multiplicity of ongoing and earnest efforts by (independent) researchers on quinine, chloroquine and HCQ can be found in the scientific literature. [4]

But Funke (and media co-conspirators) are relentless as propagandists. They only say HCQ is “dangerous”, “unproven”, not subjected to double-blind testing, etc. Yet quinine (the original source drug) is a key ingredient in your supermarket tonic water (used in gin and tonic).

So, why would a “dangerous”, “unproven” ingredient be permitted in a common beverage? And do you really believe mainstream journalists are ignorant of these facts?

Notwithstanding those questions, Funke is exposed by his cherry-picking and his footnote references at the end of the article plainly state what he failed to report. For example, his reference from healthline.com  reveals that:

 “The new coronavirus has a 79 percent genetic similarity to the SARS virus.”

The biggest difference between the two viruses, it says, is that the 2005 “SARS is much more deadly than COVID-19.”

It gets better. The authors then admit:

 “A recent study has confirmed that both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV use the same host cell receptor. It also found that, for both viruses, the viral proteins used for host cell entry bind to the receptor with the same tightness (affinity).”

The only significant difference between the 2005 SARS (SARS-CoV-1) from the current coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which we generally call COVID-19 is that the new virus:

 “spreads more easily and often causes mild symptoms.”

So, the 2005 version was much deadlier but less infectious than the current virus causing all the global pandemonium!

What this global crisis needed from Day One was honest and accurate journalism. If the mainstream won’t oblige then online citizen journalists will do the job.

From Africa comes an example of how honest journalism should be done. Check out ‘COVID-19: Nigerian study finds Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine effective as Prophylaxis’ (June 23, 2020) where Chioma Obinna reports:

“Preliminary trials on the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis for COVID-19 in Nigeria has recorded some level of success.”

A promising African Study Protocol recommends quinine for all COVID-19 Inpatients (oral for regular inpatients and intravenous for ICU Patients).  The researchers found that:

“….quinine crosses the blood-brain barrier into the alveoli which gives it an added advantage over chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 and picks up where CQ/ HCQ stop….“Chloroquine / Hydroxychloroquine has multiple modes of action which prevents the virus from penetrating the host cell using its S protein and Protease. It breaks the polymerase chain and prevents viral replication. “It is a zinc ionophore and ensures penetration of zinc into the viral cell.”

Because results were promising this has meant that “the study protocols are currently being used in Kaduna, Bauchi, and some other States in Nigeria,” reports Obinna. The article continues:

“Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine Prophylaxis works effectively for COVID-19 as all the clients recovered fully, after six weeks post-lockdown. None of the 110 placed on Prophylaxis has progressed into full-blown COVID-19.”

In conclusion the researchers:

“…observed that there were 100 percent positive outcome and zero deaths with 4Aminoquinolines in COVID-19 Response, stressing that quinine works in an advanced stage of COVID-19 as the case of the single laboratory tested positive clients have shown.”

So, there you have it from Africa, a key aspect of the fake media’s defense against accusations of Dr Fauci’s malfeasance is debunked. As proven by trials on real patients quinine, chloroquine and hydroxychlorine ALL work against coronavirus.

But it isn’t just in Africa where scientists are proving this family of drugs can do the job. A rudimentary search of Google Scholar reveals a plethora of studies from around the world substantiating the African findings, contrary to what politifact.com and other fake news outlets would have you believe. [6]

If these drugs were already proven to be “dangerous” then why would researchers invest so many resources in doing more trials?

In fact, there are no fewer than 80 registered trials ongoing worldwide into chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment and the evidence for success is building [7]

The conclusions are becoming more inescapable: science is showing Trump was right all along. Dr Fauci should have known – and was duty-bound to make it widely known  – that HCQ (combined with the Z-pac protocol) was a proven front line candidate for a cure.

What Fauci had to do from March 21 2020 was apply due diligence and check Trump’s “game changer” claims to uncover and share what was known in 2005. In his capacity as the lead White House Task Force expert he was duty bound to do this. Instead, he played dumb and obfuscated.

If Dr Fauci had acted perhaps 500,000+ lives could have been saved and the wholesale destruction of the world economy prevented because of an avoidable global ‘lock down‘.

[1] ‘Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread’ (Aug 22 2005) https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/about doi: 10.1186/1743-422X-2-69. See: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16115318/

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920300881

[3] T.E. Wellems, C.V. Plowe, Chloroquine-resistant malaria, J Infect Dis, 184 (2001), pp. 770-776

[4] M. Wang, R. Cao, L. Zhang, X. Yang, J. Liu, M. Xu, et al.Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro Cell Res, 30 (2020), pp. 269-271, 10.1038/s41422-020-0282-0

[5] https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/06/covid-19-nigerian-study-finds-chloroquine-hydroxychloroquine-effective-as-prophylaxis/

[6] The list is extensive, here are just a few:

https://japer.in/storage/models/article/35pnDAguYFOxpT6iPhlybXNg64ULBZMQIxvX4aD2WzEEyhkSwVdOsU92f9OQ/molecular-docking-of-quinine-chloroquine-and-hydroxychloroquine-to-angiotensin-converting-enzyme-2.pdf

Gao J, Tian Z, Yang X. Breakthrough: chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies. Biosci Trends. (2020) 14:72–3. doi: 10.5582/bst.2020.01047

Gautret P, Lagier JC, Parola P, Hoang VT, Meddeb L, Mailhe M, et al. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial. Int J Antimicrobial Agents. (2020). doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105949. [Epub ahead of print].

[7] Ferner RE, Aronson JK. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in covid-19. BMJ. (2020) 369:m1432. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1432

About the author: John O’Sullivan John is CEO and co-founder (with Dr Tim Ball) of Principia Scientific International (PSI).  John is a seasoned science writer and legal analyst who assisted Dr Ball in defeating world leading climate expert, Michael ‘hockey stick’ Mann in the ‘science trial of the century‘. O’Sullivan is credited as the visionary who formed the original ‘Slayers’ group of scientists in 2010 who then collaborated in creating the world’s first full-volume debunk of the greenhouse gas theory plus their new follow-up book.

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