Trumpery
Deriding the Donald has become a bit like snatching sweets from a toddler.
But he does keep asking for it.
Now he is saving the human race by conducting an experiment on himself. If successful, it will be, in his own words: “One of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine.”
And who will we have to thank for this historic break-through? Yes, Trump.
Of course, it may just be trumpery, defined by the OED as deceit, fraud, trickery, or something of no value, a trifle, or trash.
He knows better than the medics, who say that the drug hydroxychloroquine, sold as Plaquenil, is not only of no use as a treatment for Covid-19, but potentially having serious , life-threatening side-effects.
The US Federal Drugs Agency (FDA) banned its sale up to mid-March, because the Indian manufacturer did not meet good manufacturing practices. This was a pity, because Trump’s family trusts have big investments in Sanofi, the pharmaceutical company behind hydroxychloroquine.
Following Trump’s valiant self-experimentation, the Indian government has earned the President’s approval by ordering big supplies of the drug and the USA has bought 29 million doses. Even if the drug is eventually proved beyond any doubt to be nothing more than snake-oil, trumpery, in the face of Covid-19. The holy family will have made a packet. Drinks all round.
It would be a pity if Trump stopped taking hydroxychloroquine because it is said to be not only dangerous but lethal, and the most reliable choice for people who want to end their life because there is no end to their suffering or their disability. However it is also a pity that in France so many people, influenced by mad professor Didier Raoult, have managed somehow to obtain products based on hydroxychloroquine and have drained pharmacies who need this particular molecule for some of their patients with some incurable illnesses, such as lupus, as is the case with one of my friends.
Trump probably wants chloroquine because he thinks it is his right and property. The same is happening with the research for a vaccine against the Coved-19, lots of firms and countries are busy, including China. The French pharmaceutical company SANOFI, who still receives tax credit from the French government, is partly or largely owned by the US HHS. Sanofi also finances vaccine research at Sanofi – Pasteur (Louis Pasteur must be kicking in his crypt under the Institut Pasteur in Paris). Sanofi Pasteur linked up with BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority) sometime in February to work on a possible vaccine. But in mid-May, it was all hell let loose with the French government when somehow the French Sanofi boss let out that when (not if) a vaccine was found the US would have the first batch. Yes this is what happens with globalisation. So as Trump who has been promising a vaccine since day one ( he even said at the time it would only take a couple weeks), he probably thinks that he will be first to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and make a big show of it. The French government’s response was that any vaccination found would be for all, especially for Europe, to share. .. But it might be too late for that. I don’t know what has happened since.