Urges State to Unshackle the Doctors to Break Pandemic

New Jersey State Senator Joe Pennacchio once again questioned how the State is dictating how doctors may treat their patients.

The State can curb the spread of coronavirus if the Murphy Administration allows doctors to use hydroxychloroquine to protect patients before they get sick, Senator Pennacchio said. (©iStock)

“Instead of allowing doctors to prophylactically or immediately treat patients, New Jersey is requiring them to have a full-blown case of coronavirus before action can be taken,” said Pennacchio (R-26). “By that time, in many cases, it is too late.”

The senator has been a vocal advocate for the preventative and therapeutic use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to calm the COVID-19 outbreak.  Joining him was almost 70 doctors and a European research doctor.

Pennacchio compared the early utilization of HCQ for the coronavirus to the original use of the drug given to patients prophylactically before travel to malaria-infested areas of malaria.

“It would have made no sense to withhold the treatment until people contracted malaria, and it’s insane to wait for people to show signs of the coronavirus while this pandemic is taking lives and destroying our economy,” Pennacchio said.

Today, in a letter to Pennacchio, New Jersey physician Dr. Theresa Thomas echoed the senator’s position.

Dear Senator Pennacchio:

It has come to the attention of Physicians in New Jersey that the Attorney General and the Governor of NJ have made a Division of Consumer Affairs Administrative order (DCA 2010-01) that is poised to harm many citizens of NJ if it is not repealed or modified urgently.  …

The order does not allow contacts of high-risk patients or critical/essential personnel to be treated early with hydroxychloroquine, when early treatment may be the only way to prevent hospitalization and requirement for ventilator use.

If physicians can treat individuals early, as we see fit, we can likely prevent widespread illness in our State with the lowest doses of hydroxychloroquine.  If we treat these patients early, perhaps with as little as one pill today, one pill tomorrow and one pill a week until the pandemic is over, we can likely prevent hospital overcrowding and the need for ventilators.

We must urge our Governor and our Attorney General not to shackle the physicians of NJ.

We took an oath “To do no harm.” Part of that oath is also preventing orders that will harm the citizens of NJ.  This is such an order. – Theresa Thomas, MD

Other doctors also weighed in with their support:

Vinod Sanchetti, Md – Internal Medicine

Varinder Singh, Md – Cardiology/Internal Medicine

Mannish Saini, Md – Internal Medicine

Rimmi Sobti, Md – Internal Medicine

Karam Dalal, MD Internal Medicine

Prabhat Sinha, MD Internal Medicine

Puneet Sahgal, MD Internal Medicine

Sakshi Pawa, MD Internal Medicine

Dilip Desai, MD Internal Medicine

Vinod Ghetiya, MD Internal Medicine

Sarvat Takla, MD Internal Medicine

Monnet Tresvalace, MD Internal Medicine

Parhar Avtar, MD pulmonologist

Bikramjeet Singh,MD Nephrologist

Sanjay Kumar, MD Internal Medicine

Mukesh Shah, MD Internal Medicine

Mathew Kandathil, MD Gastroenterology, Internal Medicine

Rimmi Sobti, MD Internal Medicine

Mannish Saini, MD Internal Medicine

Varinder Singh, MD Cardiology/Internal Medicine

Vinod Sanchetti, MD. Internal Medicine