Hype and Hope.

• Author: Orient, Jane M.

The dictionary definition of "hype" is a deception or put-on, or promotional publicity of an extravagant or contrived kind, but regarding medical advances, it might be used to refer to hope. Hope, or "false hope," is something doctors are not supposed to give patients regarding a nonestablished treatment for a disease, especially one deemed to be incurable. Hope is not needed if an outcome is assured. Hope is what sustains people when the outlook appears bleak. The alternative is despair.

Regarding COVID-19, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other established national and international agencies define what is hype or false hope. If "hype," also called "harmful misinformation," appears on a website or social media, it will be disappeared, cancelled, or labeled as dangerous, as people are referred to WHO or CDC websites.

Remember that most entities promoting panic and despair have an ulterior motive. They are selling a remedy, the only thing that they say can save you from certain disaster.

WHO, CDC, et al., and the medical organizations and physicians who trust their authority are saying that COVID-19 is incurable. We must remain locked down, separated, and masked. If we catch it, we must go home, self-isolate, and come to the hospital if we cannot breathe. We can take some over-the-counter medications for fever and pain, but there is nothing to prescribe.

Once in the hospital, we will be separated from family, friends, clergy, and independent doctors. If we are about to die, there may be a ventilator available for us. Our chance of surviving then may be 50%--or less. The hospital we are in might have a clinical trial for which we are eligible. We will be assigned to get--or not get--a drug that they think might work, or perhaps we will get remdesrvir on an FDA Emergency Use Authorization. The government has committed to buy three months' worth of production at $3,120 per five-day course of treatment (500,000 doses). If each course has six closes, that is about $260,000,000. If we survive--remdesivir does not seem to affect that--it will save us about four days in the hospital. That is real money, not just hype.

The latest "hype" to wam us about concerns quercetin. According to Medpage Today, the hype is "comparable to early data on hydroxychloroquine" (HCQ). This plant flavonoid, found in capers and green tea, snares one mechanism of action with HCQ. It helps zinc get into cells, where it...