Michigan’s governor is fighting a losing battle with President Trump
By
Andrea Widburg
Before President Trump’s State of the Union address in February, most Americans outside of Michigan had never heard of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. When she gave the Democrat response to Trump’s
tour de force, she impinged ever so slightly on the popular consciousness before lapsing back into obscurity.
Now, perhaps because she’s hoping to be the token woman Groping Joe Biden names as his Vice President, Whitmer is back in the media. It’s doubtful, though, that Americans will be impressed with a woman who has such a vendetta against the President that she’s willing to withhold life-saving medicine and to lie.
Ever since
Trump stated his hope that hydroxychloroquine (and a similar drug, chloroquine), when prescribed with azithromycin, could treat coronavirus, the Democrat establishment has been hostile to the drug. Although chloroquine is an old and well-known drug, Nevada's governor
limited its use to the hospital setting only. Whitmer has gone further than that.
Whitmer’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs informed all Michigan physicians that
they could face “professional consequences” for prescribing chloroquine for any off-label purpose, rather than for the FDA-approved purposes of treating malaria and arthritis. It's important to understand that off-label use is a common practice and completely legal. Whitmer, however, went so far as to add a dose of East German spying by telling physicians that they must report to the Department of Licensing any information they have about
other physicians using off-label chloroquine prescriptions.
The directive wasn’t limited to physicians. The same official notice informed pharmacists that they cannot fill any off-label prescriptions.
It’s hard to think of a reason other than Trump-hatred for this kind of directive. On the one hand, we have a disease that has stopped the world in its tracks and a known, reputable drug that
might treat it. And on the other hand, we have a governor who tells physicians and pharmacists that they could lose their licenses if they give it to patients in need. There’s something very wrong about that.