Statement by State Senator Joe Pennacchio

With each passing day, more and more evidence is accumulating that Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) can have a key function in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Doctors on the front line are not only treating their patients with HCQ but are also taking HCQ (Plaquenil is the generic for HCQ) to prevent the virus from infecting them. Dr. Steve Kassapidis working tirelessly in a New York hospital, is one of them. [Fox News (1:55) (5:32)].

Sen. Pennacchio again called on Federal and State authorities to encourage HCQ’s production, storage and protocol formulation including a possible public use as a prophylactic measure against COVID-19 spread. (CDC)

Dr. Stephen Smith of the Smith Center for Infectious Diseases is treating all his patients with HCQ. No patient he treated has needed to be vented. Dr. Amesh Adalja uses HCQ only and has seen good results. Dr. Zev Zelenko claims to have treated 350 patients with zero deaths and zero hospitalizations. [Click Here]

Building on his previous study world famous French infectious disease specialist Dr. Didier Raoult submitted an additional study of 60 patients treated with a combination of HCQ and Zithromax (Azithromycin is generic for Zithromax). Of the 80 patients, all but one survived. [Click Here]

Countries that some would describe as “third world,” like Pakistan, India and Armenia are all using HCQ as part of their treatment, protocol for COVID-19, and have banned the export so as to have ready supplies for their citizens. [Click Here and Here]

The most interesting and hopeful broad-based development is the use of HCQ as a “preventative therapy.” Recently, almost 70 doctors, scientists and health care providers signed a letter encouraging the use and further study for HCQ to be used in the prevention of the spread of COVID-19. [Click Here]

Could HCQ be used as a prophylactic replacing or enhancing social distancing and isolation? One could only hope so! So why the inaction from political and government leaders? Like all obedient civil servants in a bureaucracy, free thought and expression is not a requirement and is discouraged. It is easier to play it safe and tell the public to wait for government approval based on continuous tests, even though evidence keeps accumulating that HCQ is effective. These government and political leaders will be the first to praise our first responders and our health care providers in the trenches, but are deaf to their calls for the use of HCQ. They of course will be taking credit when reason and common sense prevails as to the use of HCQ and its effectiveness.

Again, I call on Federal and State authorities to encourage HCQ’s production, storage and protocol formulation including a possible public use as a prophylactic measure against COVID-19 spread. These may sound like extraordinary measures. They are extraordinary but no less than isolating and locking down our entire Country.