Raoult Retracted, McCullough Revoked, HCQ Revisited
The paper from disgraced French researcher Dr. Didier Raoult that kicked off Trump’s (and Bolsonaro’s) embrace of hydroxychloroquine as a pandemic “game changer” has finally been retracted on scientific and ethical grounds. In light of this overdue retraction, I wrote about key figures in the MAGA debacle over the anti-malarial drug.
HCQ caused a major rift between the Trump administration and Fauci, a whistleblower lawsuit against the HHS under Trump, a MAGA war with the FDA after the drug was thoroughly disproven against the virus, and launched many now high profile anti-vaxxers.
Consequences for the American scientists, doctors, and politicians who participated in this debacle have been few and far between, with many still shamelessly crying “censorship” about it. Worse, a concerning number of them – namely Elon Musk, Dr. Oz, Peter Navarro, RFK Jr. – have been given or nominated for positions in the Trump 2.0 government. This makes for a grim prognosis for public health.
I wrote about some recent history we should definitely talk about ahead of Senate confirmation hearings for WhoWhatWhy.
Of note, Dr. Peter McCullough, who was involved in the MAGA crusade for HCQ before his star-making turn on Joe Rogan’s podcast fear mongering about the mRNA vaccines during the deadly omicron winter, has finally had his certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine revoked. The Wellness Company, for which he serves as chief scientific officer, continues to sell kits containing HCQ and ivermectin.
