Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R)
Attorney General Jeff Landry announces Louisiana is receiving 8,000 packs of azithromycin, and 75,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets, a treatment that some speculate could help treat COVID-19.
The treatment doesn’t have FDA backing yet, but Landry says many doctors have chosen to prescribe these drugs to their COVID patients, and “in some cases allowing the recovery of these patients without the use of a ventilator or hospitalization,”
When asked about the treatment, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said “The data is at best suggestive. I don’t think we could definitively say it works.”
The President has strongly advocated for the treatment, but Landry cautions it’s no replacement for not getting infected in the first place.
“It is important to remember that these drugs do not represent a silver bullet or a magic wand,” says Landry.
Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial that is now used to treat other conditions such as Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis. There’s fear those patients could find the drug in short supply due to the substantial increase in demand, but Landry says so far that doesn’t seem to be an issue.
“I spoke to a number of large chains and also some distributors here in Louisiana and I don’t find, as far as right now, a large shortage of hydroxychloroquine,” says Landry.
The drugs were procured from Teva Pharmaceuticals.
Comments