Here’s a lede that made me shriek and then almost throw my laptop against a wall: “Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was in the center of the impeachment storm earlier this year as an unpaid private attorney for President Trump, has cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser to a president eager to find ways to short-circuit the coronavirus pandemic.”
As the Washington Post reports, Giuliani has been calling up Donald Trump and promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin in treading covid-19. “I discussed it with the president after he talked about it,” Giuliani told the Post. “I told him what I had on the drugs.”
What exactly does noted man of science Giuliani have on the drugs? More, via the Post:
In his newly fashioned role, Giuliani — who was widely praised for steering New York City with a steady hand through the 2001 terrorist attacks — has solicited medical tips from a controversial Long Island family doctor with a following in the conservative media, as well as a former pharmacist who once pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort the actor Steven Seagal.
“Got lots of positive reports on hydroxy and Zithromax,” Giuliani tweeted on March 26.
On Sunday, Donald Trump, perhaps influenced by his “personal science advisor,” again pushed for doctors to use hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 patients, despite little solid evidence that it works and despite its known side effects, which includes, per the New York Times, causing “a heart arrhythmia that can lead to cardiac arrest.”
“But what do I know? I’m not a doctor,” Trump said during his Sunday briefing.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is now in the ICU after his covid-19 symptoms, which were previously described as “mild,” worsened on Monday. From the Guardian:
It is understood Johnson was moved to the intensive care unit just short of an hour and a half ago.
The decision was made by his medical team after his condition worsened over the course of Monday. The prime minister is understood to be conscious and to have been moved as a precaution in case he needs ventilation.
- Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp seems very committed to killing people. [Washington Post]
- Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers is trying to save lives, issuing an executive order suspending in-person voting for tomorrow’s election after the Republican-led state legislature refused to take action over the weekend. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
- Donald Trump has fucked up the response to the coronavirus so badly that voters in Florida are now leaning towards Joe Biden. [Politico]
- In a stirring display of leadership, Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly described Captain Brett Crozier, the fired former commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, as “stupid” and “naive” in a speech to the ship’s crew. Crozier, as you may recall, was fired after a memo alerting his higher-ups about a coronavirus outbreak on his ship was later leaked to the press. Crozier has now been diagnosed with covid-19. [USA Today]
- Two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died from covid-19 complications. [NPR]
- And they’re not the only retail and grocery store workers who have died from covid-19. [Washington Post]