FISH TANK CLEANER is bad for your health. The media, however, isn’t warning you about that. Instead they are peddling Fake News. But now, while people are on the edge, have lost their jobs, and are watching in disgust as Democrats play games, the media decides to up the ante. This time with a major story about a death in Arizona involving FISH TANK CLEANER.
Yes folks, you read that correctly. I saw the story that Axios published last night.
“Man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine”
Nice headline isn’t it? They did it just for clicks. The story itself, which I should’ve taken a screen shot of, was short and simple. It originally stated that the couple, in their mid-60’s, ingested the actual drug in hopes of preventing the from getting Coronavirus. It linked to the Banner Health press announcement and went on to infer that if President Trump hadn’t been touting hydroxychloroquine, plus azithromycin as a possible treatment, this couple wouldn’t have overdosed on the medication. Here’s the problem with the story that Axios peddled, they purposefully left out a crucial detail from Banner’s report.
“A man has died and his wife is under critical care after the couple, both in their 60s, ingested chloroquine phosphate, an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks. Within thirty minutes of ingestion, the couple experienced immediate effects requiring admittance to a nearby Banner Health hospital.”
FISH TANK CLEANER for treating sick fish. NOT anti-malaria medication. Did ANYONE in the media bother to read the entire Banner Health announcement? No. Instead, they ran with it in an effort to paint Trump as the bad guy in this. A few sample headlines.
NYTimes: Man Fatally Poisons Himself While Self-Medicating for Coronavirus, Doctor Says
Slate: Arizona Man Dies From Chloroquine Overdose After Listening to Trump Coronavirus Press Conference
HuffPost: Arizona Man Dies After Self-Medicating With Chloroquine In Attempt To Prevent Coronavirus
Nice theme going there isn’t it? NBC News however, really won the Fake News sweepstakes on this story. They nabbed an interview with the man’s wife!
“The man’s wife told NBC News she’d watched televised briefings during which President Trump talked about the potential benefits of chloroquine. Even though no drugs are approved to prevent or treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, some early research suggests it may be useful as a therapy.
“We were afraid of getting sick.”
The name “chloroquine” resonated with the man’s wife, who asked that her name not be used to protect the family’s privacy. She’d used it previously to treat her koi fish.
“I saw it sitting on the back shelf and thought, ‘Hey, isn’t that the stuff they’re talking about on TV?'””
I’m sorry, but these folks brought this upon themselves. This is why we have warning labels on everything. Warning labels that these poor misguided deluded folks didn’t even bother to read. They are paying a heavy price for their OWN choice.
Yet the media is running full speed with this Fake News as a Trump GOTCHA.
What the Today show and everyone else in the media is leaving out is that the ACTUAL drug has to be prescribed by a doctor! That Arizona couple, if they had truly been paying attention to the Trump Covid-19 press conferences, would’ve heard the team say multiple times that it is a prescribed medication!
But sure, let’s run with Fake News to dunk on President Trump.
Some advice from the woman in Arizona who, along with her husband, took chloroquine phosphate because @realDonaldTrump said on TV it was a cure and was safe.
She’s in an ICU. Her husband’s dead. https://t.co/xsSoUwLbg0
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 24, 2020
Uh, @BuzzFeed? This guy didn't "self-medicate" with "a drug," let alone the same drug Trump touted. He drank fish tank chemicals because there was a similarly named ingredient. pic.twitter.com/2CfhBNiCia
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) March 24, 2020
Meanwhile Axios backpedaled…sort of.
We have deleted this tweet and corrected our story because it did not reflect the full nature of the self-medication done with an additive commonly used to clean fish tanks. https://t.co/0zucqRaIkI pic.twitter.com/3YY86rju2w
— Axios (@axios) March 24, 2020
What a load of crap from Axios. They left the original tweet and story up for HOURS to get folks ramped up and afraid. Axios purposefully left out details in their original story knowing full well that far too many people never go past the headlines, nor would they click on the link to Banner Health and find out that what Axios and everyone else in the media was peddling was absolutely Fake News!
That poor lady in ICU can blame Trump all she wants. But at the end of the day, she and her husband made a very bad choice on their own. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE forced them to decided that a fish aquarium cleaning solution would keep them free from Coronavirus. That lady and her husband poisoned themselves out of a misguided attempt to keep them safe, and the media is gleefully capitalizing on this because Trump Bad!
Welcome Instapundit readers!
Feature Photo Credit: JacLu via Pixabay, cropped and modified
Bucky says: Surely the container of the koi pond cleaner had a warning about not ingesting which these unfortunate people ignored, but still let’s blame Trump say the lefty propagandists.
Scott says: Stupid is as stupid does sir…
Johnny says: How do you spell “disgusting” without using a “g”?
M-A-I-N-S-T-R-E-A-M M-E-D-I-A
GWB says: Yeah, the media have covered themselves in glory feces with this one.
First, the chemical term “phosphate” should get people’s attention. That’s the bit they’ve banned from detergents of various kinds because it’s bad for the environment. So “cloroquine phosphate” is a clue to NOT INGEST! It’s likely to be a caustic agent.
Second, anyone who thinks you can take a product off the shelf and use it like this is either looking for attention or seriously low intelligence. (Anyone remember if ‘moron’ or ‘imbecile’ is the lower IQ?) I’m somewhat surprised no one has yet put 1 (cloroquine) and 1 (Clorox) together and gotten 0.
Third, Slate’s headline – “Arizona Man Dies From Chloroquine Overdose After Listening to Trump Coronavirus Press Conference” – is patently false, as he most likely died from the phosphate part of the equation. The amount of chloroquine he ingested is probably insignificant in terms of nearly immediate death.
Fourth, as a PSA:
Quinine is the stuff you get naturally from the bark of a tree, and is found in proper “tonic water”. (It will take you enough vodka and tonics to get to a medicinal dose of quinine that you won’t care if you have Wuhan Flu.)
Chloroquine is a refined/concentrated form of that.
Hydroxychloroquine is a branch from that, as a different (but similar) chemical substance, used as a more effective anti-malarial than regular chloroquine.
Only the hydroxychloroquine was tested by the French (though chloroquine will probably also be effective, but less so). And that is what companies are now producing in job lots, along with the specific anti-biotic known as Z-Pak. (It would be interesting to see if anyone will test for efficacy against normal flu, which some people have claimed.)
Scott says: ““Arizona Man Dies From Chloroquine Overdose After Listening to Trump Coronavirus Press Conference” – is patently false, as he most likely died from the phosphate part of the equation. The amount of chloroquine he ingested is probably insignificant in terms of nearly immediate death.”.. Actually that part is unknown in this case GWB, due to a couple factors. As this stuff is intended to clean fish tanks, we have no idea what the concentration is, and what dosage he took. Additionally, based on his age, he may have had an underlying cardiac issues, and chloroquine can have a specific effect on cardiac patients that very well could be fatal in a short period of time.
GWB says: I’ll give you that.
njc says: And we don’t know what else might be in that fish tank cleaner, either deliberately or as an accidental impurity.
We suffer from a massive plague of ignorance and another of recklessness. Instead of warning people about the dangers of foolish actions and educating them on why the actions are foolish, our media betters####### slime creatures teach people to blame Trump for their own thrice-damnfoolishness.
Scott says: Exactly!
Joe in PNG says: And if the President had said nothing, then the press would crucify him for not spreading the word about a readily available potentially life saving treatment.
Dietrich says: But my Corona Beer treatments are OK, yes? Please tell me yes.
Joe in PNG says: Gin & tonic therapy would probably work better.
Scott says: No! No-one should drink crappy beer! (Especially if we’re facing the end of the world!) /sarc
samoore says: Chloroquine Phosphate is the generic name of Aralen, an anti-malarial and amebicidal drug.
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-8633/chloroquine-oral/details
https://www.rxlist.com/aralen-drug.htm
A lethal dose can be as low as 20 mg/kg.
Drew458 says: I saw several versions of this story today and they were all run for no better reason than to bash Trump. All of them were “samizdat”; not one of them found out what brand of fish tank cleaner it was, or what the other ingredients are. So I looked.
I just did half an hour of internet research. It’s a bit difficult to find info on this. The chemical is not sold as a fish tank cleaner, but as a fish tank antibiotic medicine, often sold in bulk to professionals. Merex is one slightly common brand, Magna CP Medic is another. What I did find was news that the prices on this stuff have gone up 25X in the past few days in Australia and other parts of the world.
I looked into it a bit further, and found that most of them are mixed with Pyrimethamine, which is another very potent drug that can have pretty severe side effects.
I wonder if this couple from Arizona were serious large scale tropical fish enthusiasts? Did anyone ask? This is not the kind of fish medicine you can get at Pet-Smart.
It crossed my mind that this could be a nearly perfect murder too. Dose the old geezer good and strong, and then just take a tiny bit yourself and immediately throw it up. Blame it all on Trump and the “911 asked so many questions before they sent someone” thing.
Trimbo says: So by the mainstream media’s logic: Vodka, Rum, Bourbon, etc. producers are responsible for people who die from drinking rubbing alcohol.
What a bunch of maroons.
Bret says: My understanding is that the drug is indeed chloroquine phosphate. However, it is toxic at higher doses so the main problem was that they took waaaay too much.
Other problems might include other toxic ingredients and purity issues.
DEEBEE says: Trump should invite this lady to Fifth Avenue and shoot her. It will also increase the average IQ of the world.
Stoutcat Anonyme says: This is why we can’t have nice things.
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