In light of the U.S.’s recent reversion back to masks allegedly due to heightened COVID-19 cases but, in reality, being done in order to push people to get vaccinated, I decided to have a look at India’s coronavirus cases since it was pitched in the U.S. media as being a debacle. As it turns out, India’s COVID cases have flattened, about 2/3 of the population have antibodies to ward off coronavirus, while 7% of Indians are vaccinated.

Upon digging deeper, there is more to what the American media is reporting about how India addressed their COVID outbreak. As it turns out, the Indian Express reports the country has been dispensing up to 4 different drugs, among them is hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). to infected patients Interestingly enough, India is where most of the hydroxychloroquine is manufactured and last year India’s government expanded HCQ’s use to help reduce coronavirus transmission.

A study published in the Lancet during May 2020 stating HCQ was ineffective against COVID-19 was retracted and the drug and ivermectine, have both reportedly been used to successfully treat COVID-19. Despite reports to the contrary, in addition to India’s experience, over 200 peer reviewed studies reveal using HCQ to treat coronavirus are or have been successful. It is clear the reduced cases and the large Indian population with coronavirus antibodies shows that India’s efforts to combat their outbreak have worked. Best of all, the country recently approved the use of Regeneron which is the antibody cocktail used to treat Donald Trump.

However, the American studies done on HCQ that outlets, like CNN and The Washington Post, use as proof the drug doesn’t work have been very inaccurate. The best time to treat a COVID-19 patient is in the first of the virus’s stages of infection which is normally done treating patients with anti-viral drugs. The manuscripts published in the United States claiming hydroxychloroquine were ineffective were administered to patients in the advanced stages of the disease.

Around this time last year, Newsweek published an op-ed by Dr. Harvey Risch expressing his amazement that he had to fight for a treatment the data fully supports while hundreds of patient’s lives were at risk. In a letter published during May of 2020 in the American Journal of Epidemiology, Dr. Risch noted not only the benefits of the HCQ, but also revealed 2 doctors who successfully treated coronavirus patients with the drug were pushing back against medical licensing boards seeking to revoke their ability to practice.

Also, Risch pointed out in his letter that since his Newsweek op-ed was published, seven more manuscripts were published showing good results when patients were administered HCQ in combination with the antibiotic Zithromax and zinc. Prevention, not masks or social distancing, is the key to stopping the spread of coronavirus. Vaccinations are an excellent idea, but a patient’s infection needs to be detected early and treated with drugs, like HCQ, ivermectine, remdesivir, or even Regeneron. Unfortunately, COVID-19 policy in the U.S. and most of the West is conducted using panic and political talking points rather than actual science.

PHOTO CREDIT: A passenger being tested for COVID-19 at the New Delhi railway station during second wave of the pandemic By Sumita Roy Dutta – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105896253