Day 181: HCQ Again and Again

The world stands at 17.2 million cases. The US at #1 is at 4.5 million, #2 Brazil at 2.5 million, #3 India at 1.6 million. Japan is having a bit of an outbreak (by Asian standards), with at least 1300 new cases today.

In the US, the news is already starting to report Texas taking the #3 spot away from New York (according to the numbers from Johns Hopkins), but at Worldometers, Texas still has a couple of days to go. Because of our blip upwards yesterday due to bad data, Pennsylvania is still about three days away from taking away Massachusetts' #10 spot. Also, GDP shrank a record 33% during the second quarter.

National Geographic reports on the sad demise of a COVID-positive German Shepherd with pre-existing conditions. "Buddy" had shortness of breath before the first American pug case was tested, and may even have been tested privately before the pug. But Buddy's test results were not confirmed by the USDA until June, and he did not pass away until mid-July. National Geographic claims to have consulted vets about Buddy's case, but apparently they didn't like what they heard; they seem quite cagey in giving the obvious explanation—Buddy died of cancer, possibly with COVID (as the conspiracy theorists say), but there's no evidence he was still symptomatic or even positive at the time of his death.

Medical records provided by the Mahoneys and reviewed for National Geographic by two veterinarians who were not involved in his treatment indicate that Buddy likely had lymphoma, a type of cancer, which would explain the symptoms he suffered just before his death.

A rather uninformative partial list of pet and zoo animal cases in the US is available from the USDA.

The hydroxychloroquine news just keeps on coming. BNO reported that the Ohio Board of Pharmacy was banning the prescription of HCQ (and chloroquine) for COVID-19. But then the Governor announced he was calling them off, because they're not doctors. (Doctors in the US are normally allowed to prescribe perfectly safe drugs for off-label uses.)

It's unclear how much this Twitter kerfluffle was influenced by the AAPS's motion for a preliminary injunction last week to release the large store of HCQ donated to the US by parties that were not mentioned (but PlagueBlog reminds readers that India is a major donor of HCQ to other countries), or by their supplementary filing.

P.S. Massachusetts cases are up a third of a percentage point today, due in part to the same reporting error from yesterday.