Video: Media Panicked Over Chloroquine But New Data Suggests It's Ventilators That Are Killing People
The media for weeks has been throwing a fit over President Trump touting "unproven," potentially "deadly" hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus but they've been hyping the clear and present danger of America not having enough ventilators without ever questioning their effectiveness.
It turns out ventilators appear to be killing coronavirus patients en masse.
From AP, "Some doctors moving away from ventilators for virus patients":
NEW YORK (AP) — As health officials around the world push to get more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, some doctors are moving away from using the breathing machines when they can.
The reason: Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients.
[...] Mechanical ventilators push oxygen into patients whose lungs are failing. Using the machines involves sedating a patient and sticking a tube into the throat. Deaths in such sick patients are common, no matter the reason they need the breathing help.
Generally speaking, 40% to 50% of patients with severe respiratory distress die while on ventilators, experts say. But 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines in New York City have died, state and city officials say.
Higher-than-normal death rates also have been reported elsewhere in the U.S., said Dr. Albert Rizzo, the American Lung Association’s chief medical officer.
Similar reports have emerged from China and the United Kingdom. One U.K. report put the figure at 66%. A very small study in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the disease first emerged, said 86% died.
Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell, an ER and critical care doctor from New York City, concluded that ventilators were doing more harm than good over a week ago and suggested oxygen as a superior treatment: