Representative Andy Biggs is neither a doctor nor a scientist, yet he continues to attack public fitness and clinical forums on COVID-19.
Biggs, R-Ariz. , Has in recent days a series of pro-hydroxychloroquine and anti-mask posts on social media.
In his most recent tweets, Biggs urges Arizona residents to forget the national and local public fitness rules on COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, or the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 preventive measure, this is not recommended for prophylactic use through the federal or state government.
He also suggested that members of the public be “unmasked. “
Earlier this summer, Biggs defied the growing number of hospitalizations in Arizona and warned that the COVID-19 pandemic was disproportionate.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Department of Health reported 206,045 COVID-19 cases and 5,221 known deaths from respiratory illnesses.
“There is no medical basis for what he tells other people to do and he does not have the clinical capacity to make the statements,” Dr. Lee Ann Kelley, president of the Maricopa County Medical Society, said of Biggs.
“It’s absurd that this has a political factor rather than a public fitness factor,” Kelley said. “There’s tons of evidence of mask paints and I think one of the reasons Arizona numbers dropped was because of mask arrest warrants. “
There is genuine evidence of “cause and effect” that mask paintings and that Biggs telling others that dressing in a mask is a matter of freedom is “highly irresponsible,” he said.
Arizona experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases in June and July that hit hospitals to the point where they canceled elective surgeries, rushed to load COVID-19 beds and negative stress rooms, and hired nurses and respiratory therapists from the states.
Arizona has one of the country’s infection rates, according to the CDC’s COVID tracker. Its death rate of 72 COVID-19 deaths consistent with 100,000 others is more consistent with the US average. But it’s not the first time Of 57 deaths consistent with 100,000 others, according to the CDC.
In his tweets, Biggs says Arizonans deserve to “fight the medical system” to gain more access to hydroxychloroquine. Drugs “have unfortunately become too politicized, adding in Arizona,” he tweeted on Aug. 31. Since then, he has tweeted five more times in favor of Arizonans’ “right to try” hydroxychloroquine.
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are antimalarial drugs that were used to treat certain patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic with an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration. But it’s not the first time
The FDA revoked this emergency use authorization on June 15 because the federal firm found that the drugs “had no benefit in reducing the likelihood of death or speeding up recovery. “
On July 1, the FDA issued a summary of protection considerations related to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat hospital patients with COVID-19. These disorders come with reports of serious central rhythm disorders, blood and lymphatic formula disorders, kidney damage and liver failure.
On April 2, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order stating that Arizona providers can prescribe hydroxychloroquine to a user with COVID-19, but cannot prescribe it to save COVID-19, the order says.
In a Sept. 1 interview with conservative radio host Ed Martin on the Pro America Report, Biggs said that in Arizona it is “fundamentally illegal to fill a prescription for those not on hydroxychloroquine for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or malaria and so on. it’s stupid. . “
Biggs mentioned that suppliers may prescribe hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19.
Biggs spokesman Daniel Stefanski showed through a text message Wednesday that Biggs was aware of Ducey’s decree and that in the interview with Martin he sought to highlight the inability of Arizona suppliers to prescribe the drug. as a prophylactic for COVID-19.
Biggs told Martin in the interview that hydroxychloroquine is “a drug that seems to have positive effects, so let’s make that selection. Let’s make that selection as loose Americans after meeting with our doctor. “
He attributes the state’s drug restrictions to “petty tyrants. “
The Arizona Department of Health Services does not propose hydroxychloroquine as an outdoor prophylactic clinical trial, branch spokesman Steve Elliott wrote in an email.
Elliott has shown that Ducey’s executive order is still in effect and that Arizona providers can prescribe hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients, as long as it is not a preventive measure.
“We are continuing the existing medical literature and will update it as necessary,” Elliott wrote.
Biggs tweets also urge Arizonans to “unmask,” it’s a “path to renewed freedom. “
“In general, other people perceive that the price of dressing up in a mask is to protect others from what exhales,” said Dr. Ross Goldberg, general surgeon in Phoenix, president of the Arizona Medical Association.
“The mask is not to protect you from the things that come to you, it is to save you from scattering everything you exhale. If you wear a mask and someone else wears a mask, now you have one of the other, another. “
Science has already shown that the use of surgical tissues or masks through the general public will particularly decrease transmission, Goldberg said, is not the best preventive measure.
It also works best if you participate, he said.
“If I’m in a crowd of other people and I’m the only one dressed in a mask, the only one who’s attacking other people is me,” Goldberg said. “I am not ed; I’m others. “
A June 1 article in The Lancet, a major medical journal, reviewed 172 other observational studies from 16 countries and found that wearing a mask can pose a threat of infection.
A study published on June 11 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that COVID-19 transmission is mainly transmitted through the air and that widespread use of masks “significantly reduces the number of infections. “Without masks, enough social esttachment, according to the article, which studied trends in Wuhan, China; Italy; and New York.
“I take them to the operating room for my patient. Not my patient’s,” Goldberg said. “This may be from a jet of blood. But when I’m operating, I operate in a sterile field. You don’t need me to breathe in this sterile field. “
At some point, Arizonans will be able to safely unmask when rates of disease transmission are successful at a “very low point,” Goldberg said.
“Do you pass on to a politician when you are in poor health or pass on to your doctor?” asked Goldberg.
“And if the answer is that you’re going to see your doctor, then why are we paying attention to the politicians who are now giving medical recommendations when we might not pay attention to them for any additional medical recommendations?”
Biggs, who also heads the conservative House Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill, and his constituents “are not mandated to subscribe to particular fitness organizations or fitness studios,” Stefanski wrote in a text message.
“He does not know what is best, nor does he believe that an organization or an exam knows what is most productive for him,” Stefanski wrote. “He, along with each of his constituents, deserves the freedom to decide what is most productive for them, their families and those they enjoy in any fitness setting. “
Bureaucrats, fitness officials and local government leaders were more than they were right about COVID-19, Stefanski wrote.
Kelley said those are all kinds of fitness regulations that exist in society to keep everyone safe, such as wearing seat belts, obeying speed limits and driving, not smoking in public places where other people are expected to breathe secondhand smoke.
“I think those precautions, the use of a mask and social distancing, are very important to get rid of the virus or at least reduce it to a manageable number and help us as a state to get a vaccine. ” »He stated. “. . . Representative Biggs will have to stay in his lane. “
Arizona journalist Alison Steinbach contributed to the report.
Contact Care Reporter Stephanie Innes at Stephanie. Innes@gannett. com or 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @ stephanieinnes