Gimme, Gimme Trump Treatment

By Charles Vavruska

This is Charles Vavruska’s amazing story of his hydroxychloroquine treatment and cure after he was stricken with COVID-19 as published at Townhall.com, the leading source for conservative news and political commentary and analysis.  Charles Vavruska is a New York City-based parent activist and evangelist for the local Specialized High School Admissions Test.

QUEENS, New York — On Sunday night, March 15, I started feeling achy. By Monday night, I was achy all over. However, on Tuesday, I felt better, as I did all day Wednesday. On Thursday night, March 19, the aches returned. On Friday, I was sick: I had a fever, ached all over, was extremely lethargic, and lost my appetite.

That weekend, as I collapsed on my couch, President Donald J. Trump told journalists that he thought an anti-malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine might be a promising treatment against COVID-19. “I’m not saying it will, but I think that people may be surprised. By the way, that would be a game changer. But we’re going to know very soon,” Trump said about HCQ. “You’re going to see soon enough.”

Yes Mr. President, I did see.

The White House press corps immediately attacked Trump for pushing HCQ. As they slammed him, I dozed off. When I awoke an hour later, I heard NBC’s despicable, seriously woke host Chuck Todd still assaulting Trump for advocating what Dr. Todd mocked as some sort of snake oil. I thought to myself: This guy is so deranged, he hopes that HCQ fails, so more Americans will die — all to “stop Trump.”

All this while, I had dismissed the idea that COVID-19 had struck me. On Monday night, March 23, I walked up and down the stairs to my bathroom and first experienced shortness of breath. The next morning my wife Susan, God bless her, insisted that I go to urgent care.

As soon as I saw a doctor there, she said: “You have to go to the ER.”

“I’m not going to the ER,’’ I insisted.

She ordered a chest X-ray and a flu test. While the latter was negative, within 10 minutes, the X-ray revealed pneumonia in both lungs.

ER? What a great idea!

Because my Queens neighborhood is among the reddest on the COVID-19 heat maps, I knew that nearby Elmhurst Hospital was the epicenter of this pandemic. Fortunately, the FDNY EMS ambulance crew that whisked me away was extremely competent and accommodating. They agreed to speed me to New York Presbyterian Queens, which locals still call Booth Memorial. I had only the clothes on my back and my wallet. I needed my cell phone, but my family would be unable to bring it to me, as hospitals have become closed to visitors. Through complete serendipity, the ambulance made a wrong turn. As I sat inside the emergency vehicle, I noticed that we were going down my block. Since Susan and her sister were in hot pursuit in my sister-in-law’s Honda CRV, I asked the EMTs to stop at my house, so Susan could grab my cell phone and charger. They concurred, and we secured this vital communications link.

When we arrived at the hospital’s ambulance entrance, the stretchers were backed up to the door. We got the last spot inside the hallway before it spilled onto the loading dock. The EMTs were aggressive and assured that I got checked in and quickly transferred me to an emergency-room stretcher, down the hall and beyond the vestibule.

After about an hour in the ER hallway, an orderly moved me to a different open area that the hospital had transformed into a makeshift ER. Partitions, six feet apart, carved this space into temporary “hospital rooms,” each decorated with an easy chair. A nurse immediately tested me for COVID-19. At this point, I considered it a foregone conclusion that the vicious virus had struck me. Medics checked my vital signs, installed an IV, and put me on oxygen. (The nurse who inserted the IV, a veteran of America’s war in Southeast Asia, said that he survived a jump out of a plane in Vietnam, in which his parachute didn’t open.) After a tense, 90-minute wait, doctors admitted me as a patient.

Next stop: The third floor, which seemed to be a normal intensive-care unit. This was where patients waited for proper rooms. I was lucky enough to get an alcove that was converted into a two-bed “room.” Lucky? I avoided the adjacent hallway, which was filled with stretcher beds, lining both walls.

At 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, while still in this waiting area, my doctors gave me the bad, but unsurprising, news: I had tested positive for COVID-19. Within an hour, they put me on hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, which appears to enhance HCQ’s therapeutic effects.

Thursday morning, March 26, the doctor confirmed that I was taking the anti-malarial HCQ and Zithromax together. “The Trump Treatment?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied. “The Trump Treatment.”

That night, doctors transferred me to a room. I already felt better, just 19 hours after I first took the HCQ and Z-pack. Once in the room, which I shared with another man, everything was calm, and the care went from great to excellent.

Friday morning, a nurse asked me how I was.

“I feel good! I got the Trump Treatment.”

He laughed and asked, “Is that what they’re calling it on the street?”

Later that day, the same nurse told me that he had to give me a blood thinner. “Why?” I wondered.

“Because you are lying around and doing nothing all day,” he said. “We call it the Obama shot!”

By Saturday, March 28, the Trump Treatment seemed fully effective. After three days on it, my fever and aches had vanished, and my appetite and energy had reappeared. I remained on oxygen, but at a low level.

I stayed in the hospital until Thursday, April 2, as doctors monitored my breathing. That day, my physicians released me with an oxygen concentrator.

The hospital ordered me a Lyft and put me in a lift. I left, lugging the oxygen device, a box of accessories for it, and my few belongings. I tried to find my Lyft, as my pants nearly slipped off of me. Perhaps the hospital food cost me a few pounds.

The hospital told me to expect a gray Toyota. One finally approached. The driver took one look at me and locked the doors.

A few minutes later, my ride arrived. It looked like “The Lyft Driver in the Plastic Bubble.” A plastic sheet separated the front and back seats, much as John Travolta was isolated from the world in the schmaltzy, similarly titled 1976 TV movie. The hospital paid for the Lyft, but I saw no way to give the driver a tip. “There’s a Twenty on the back seat,” I told him, as I climbed out of the reverse med-evac.

I am home now. Although I still am on oxygen, I feel great. I credit the Trump Treatment for my recovery.

Americans, especially my fellow New Yorkers, are sick at home with COVID-19. Some of them will die without ever reaching a hospital to get the Trump Treatment.

Maddeningly, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D–NY) has banned the Trump Treatment, except in hospitals. This must change. Why not treat COVID-positive individuals before they deteriorate sufficiently to require hospitalization? Treating such outpatients with HCQ and Z-Pack will prevent more serious illness and relieve inundated hospitals.

Novartis, Teva, and other drug companies have donated some 100 million doses of HCQ to the federal government. Please, Mr. President. Make sure that every COVID-19 patient and doctor who want it can get the Trump Treatment.

Message of Hope, a Blessing for Easter, and a Prayer for America

We wish all our members, friends and families who celebrate, a blessed Good Friday and blissful Easter.

President Trump held an Easter Blessing on Good Friday at the White House with Bishop Henry Jackson. It was a great prayer and message of hope for America as the president wished everyone a Happy Easter Sunday celebrating the glorious resurrection, and asked Americans to pray for the nation to be healed.

He said “at this holy time our nation is engaged in a battle like never before, the invisible enemy. Our brave doctors, nurses, and first responders are fighting to save lives, our workers are racing to deliver critical medical supplies, our best scientists are working around the clock to develop life saving therapeutics, our people are making tremendous sacrifices to end this pandemic….Our nation will come through like never before.”

Bishop Jackson’s solemn prayer for America

“Lord let the death angel pass over. Let there be a mitigation of this plague, this disease. Let medical science come forth. Lord, let us come out with a thriving economy. But in this great land that was set up to glorify your name, we want to break, we come against the spirit of division. Lord, let ‘E Pluribus Unum’ be a reality in us. Let there be a uniting of America. Heal the divide between race, class and gender. Once again, give this great man, our president, and give our vice president wisdom beyond their natural limitations. Give them insight so they can cover us, lead us, and bless us. We bless them and America in Jesus’ name. Be encouraged, hope is on the way.”

Amen!

Happy & Healthy Easter Sunday to all!

I want to wish all our Jewish members, friends and families a very happy and healthy Passover starting with tonight’s Seder. As we celebrate the festival of the liberation of the Jewish people, alone or with our immediate family or together on a digital platform, it’s important to remind ourselves about the true meaning of freedom and liberty and our mutual responsibility to save our country.

As we celebrate the Festival of Freedom during this “11th plague,” Christians celebrate Holy Week this week, and Jewish people retell the story of the Exodus out of slavery in Egypt to receive the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and ultimately reach the Holy Land to “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof!” from Leviticus 25:10, which formed the basis of our Judeo-Christian culture.

I want to share with you a very uplifting message of hope from a dear friend:

Wishing you a Passover that brings strength and good health to endure the year ahead.  Couldn’t be a more appropriate time for the angel of death to pass over all our homes especially while we are sheltering in place.  It is at stressful times like these that our resolve is strengthened and we question whether these things happen for a reason. Hopefully it will be a wake up call to save our country. Seems like G-d is sending that message and the President is the Moses of the modern era. We mourn those people however who have been sacrificed and let us pray that we will all emerge as a stronger and healthier country.
Chag Pesach Sameach

Best wishes for the safety, health and happiness of you and your loved ones. We, members of the Queens Village Republican Club believe we will come out of this pandemic stronger than before and our greatest days are ahead of us!

Phil Orenstein
President
Queens Village Republican Club
America’s Oldest Republican Club – Founded 1875
Please donate at www.qvgop.org

It takes an army to educate a child

Letter from Sgt. Eric Spinner

Editors Note: This letter to the Queens Village Republican Club, from Sgt Eric Spinner, proud US Army Veteran and one of the directors of the NY Metro Chapter of ACT for America, was sent after participating in the club’s April 2^nd Zoom Video Meeting on the Electoral College.  

Once again you have put together a terrific meeting.  Under the challenges we’re facing, it’s a terrific venue that unfortunately requires a verbal request for financial support.  Unless they figure out how to do a 50/50 online, that’s what we’re reduced to.  One way or another, we’ll make it work for us!

The choice of speakers was terrific.  Jerry Matacotta was new to my world, but I’ve heard Trent England before, and Nick Giordano was one of our leading speakers for a NYMetroACT meeting.  Their insight into the failures of the educational system is apparent in their analyses of the questions.

One of your guests, James M, had posted some questions about how to change the system, and gave as an example the fact that his sister taught in NYC and, if I may paraphrase, had no freedom to teach the facts or express her opinions for danger of being disciplined by superiors or denied union protections.  I understand that, having survived over 37 years in the NYC system.  However, I taught in a different era, and I probably got away with things that today’s teachers might not be able to get away with.  I spoke my mind and let the chips fall where they may!  I’d like to believe that I put many young errant minds back on track, but teaching is filled with intangibles- we don’t often get to see the results of our efforts.

Most of the speakers seemed to agree that involvement with the schools is a good idea, and the suggestion that getting involved at the lower grades is the way to proceed.  You can shout at the Chancellor of the NYCDOE all day and night to no avail.  But speaking with teachers at local board meetings can bear fruit.  I’m checking to see when my local districts meet, and those who see the problem and can present a legitimate case for change should do the same.

I also see this from the perspective of a military veteran.  The American Legion is very active in schools and teaches Americanism, Flag etiquette, and respect.  Another of my organizations, the Vietnam War Veterans Association, takes it a step further.  We have been going to about a dozen high schools, several middle schools and a few elementary schools for many years at the invitation of teachers and administrators.  We send a group of from 5-12 veterans, mostly Vietnam and Vietnam era, to teach social studies for the entire day, mostly about freedom, patriotism and service to country with a focus on the Vietnam era.  We have always been well-received by students and staff, and most react by saying that they never knew or understood much of what we presented.  My take on this is that the effort is not wasted, it’s just too limited in scope.

They say it takes a village to educate a child.  Perhaps it takes an army.  Perhaps we can be that army to get involved and make the change!  We certainly need it now!