Hirsh Singh Calls for Gov. Murphy to Allow Medical Community Preventative Use of Hydroxychloroquine to Treat COVID-19 Patients

LINWOOD, NJ — In response to many conversations with doctors and nurses pleading for assistance, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Hirsh Singh has issued a statement calling for Governor Phil Murphy to start allowing healthcare professionals to use preventative medicines (prophylactically) as an option to protect themselves and their patients when COVID-19 infection is suspected if they choose.

“The current policy not only drastically increases the risk to our nurses, doctors, and other first responders and will degrade our medical capability but will also place individuals waiting for test results in a dangerous and possibly deadly window where we could save their lives. News of medical professionals becoming sick and, in some cases, dying is extremely demoralizing to everyone and really harms medical care while limiting our ability to ensure we immediately take corrective action for a patient that may be infected just doesn’t make sense,” said Singh.

“No one knows the situation better than our frontline medical professionals. I’ve got doctors and nurses telling me ‘Hirsh, if we know something works and has minimal side effects, why are we not allowed to keep our staff and our patients safe?’ So I will back them up all the way. I sincerely hope that Governor Murphy will immediately reconsider his decisions in this regard.”

Researchers have recently found that the anti-malarial drug Plaquenil (generic: hydroxychloroquine) suppresses symptoms of COVID-19. Even though New Jersey is struggling to contain over 44,000 cases of COVID-19 and has suffered more than 1,200 deaths, Governor Murphy has accepted AG Grewal’s statewide restriction on Plaquenil and other medicines. Currently, patients are only allowed controlled dosages in the most extreme cases, and these restrictions do not permit the use of Plaquenil and other drugs as preventative measures. Tests can take days to return results and we have seen many cases where people have died while waiting.

Further emphasizing the lifesaving benefits of hydroxychloroquine, State Representative Karen Whitsett (D-MI) praised President Trump on Monday for raising awareness of the drug after she’d tested positive for coronavirus in March. According to Whitsett, she experienced relief “less than two hours” after taking the medication. New Jersey State Senator Joe Pennacchio has also called for prophylactic use of hydroxychloroquine.

“I call on Governor Phil Murphy to support our frontline medical professionals in containing COVID-19 with minimum losses at once by removing their restrictions on hydroxychloroquine,” says Singh.