HJBR Nov/Dec 2024

POLITICIZATION OF COVID 12 NOV / DEC 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE history, I read a lot of history, and there is a book called The Great Influenza written by John Barry about the 1918 flu pandemic. The particle size of a COVID virus is almost identical to the particle size of an influenza virus. The COVID virus, if my memory serves, is something like 0.1 micron, which is 100 nanometers if my [conversion] is right. A flu virus is 80 to 120 nanometers, so they’re basically the same size particle. Go back and read that book. Masks didn’t work then. We knew they wouldn’t work now. Whoever came up with the 6-foot rule, I mean, I won’t use a derogatory term in a public setting. Rep. Gallé Well, it’s been determined that was a made-up abstract distance. Abraham Yeah, this is a viral particle so small that I’m sure there are particles in here right now. It just floats in the air. So, 6 foot was ridiculous. So, once we saw that type of information coming out of the CDC, it just simply made no sense. To your question, some providers, healthcare providers, took CDC at their word. And I understand that — you want to be able to trust your govern- ment. That’s what government is supposed to do, is give you good feedback and give you good information. Again, I don’t think it was intentional. I just think nobody knew how to handle this particular situation. But that’s where common sense comes in, and that’s where, in my opinion, that relation- ship between the patient and the doctor, to me, is sacred. And it should not be divided by anyone. Rep. Gallé Yesterday, we had some testi- mony, and one of the takeaways for me per- sonally was that we need to exercise a little more autonomy as a state. Act, perhaps, a little more independently. Back to the CDC, they gave information out that wasn’t accu- rate. Now, we’re not in here to decide the motives for the CDC, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t good information. Abraham I agree with that. And to your point, I totally agree with the autonomy and to my previous point, I think we’ve got a leader now that understands that and will back us up on that. Rep. Charles Anthony Owen You mentioned interference from the state in the practice of medicine. Would you call it significant? Did you just did you shake it off or … Abraham Well, we got interference from some of the pharmacists, certainly. Now, from the board itself, I’ll defer to Dr. Cole- man. He’s a little more versed on this par- ticular issue, and he I have had extensive conversations, but there were some issues with certain providers with the board that were, again, practicing medicine the way they thought it should be practiced. And again, that’s their prerogative as physicians. Rep. Gallé Would you introduce yourself? Deputy Surgeon General Wyche Coleman, MD Yes, I amWyche Coleman, I am the deputy surgeon general, doing what Dr. Abraham tells me to do. I think the national boards were more of a problem, like the internal medicine boards. They’ve taken a few peo- ple’s licenses who are pretty high-pow- ered people, recently, the internal medicine board. I think the state board was less of a problem. People did receive letters, and I think that had a chilling effect on speech. Rep. Owen That’s where I am going, Coleman Here is an interesting story, COVID was pretty scary at one time, especially dur- ing the Delta wave. The hospitals were full, people were dying in droves, and I would call my dad, a primary care doctor doing just about the same thing Dr. Ralph does over in Coushatta, maybe twice a week and say, “Did you have anyone hospitalized?” “No.” “Did you have anyone die?”They’re seeing maybe 50 COVID patients a day at that time, giving a lot of monoclonal antibodies, giving a lot of early treatment and backing it up with monoclonal antibodies; and the answer was always, “No.” And I’m amazed because the hospitals in Shreveport are totally full. I said, you guys have got to publish something on this and tell about this. And of course, my dad said, “I don’t want to lose my medical license, so I’m not telling anybody about this.”So, I think there was already a chilling effect. He is a 70-year-old guy, he’s not too worried about that, but he didn’t want to end up in a situation where he was under duress and not able to continue treating patients. I think that the implied threats — there were some people who got letters — I think that the just the implication of the threats defi- nitely had a chilling effect on speech, and that’s the reason everyone wasn’t using early treatment. They were scared to. Rep. Owen What I’m really driving at is that. Dr. Abraham, have you in your med- ical career ever seen that? Has there ever been another time? Or even heard of a state licensing board stepping in, and threaten- ing people with licensure harm, if they’re caught spreading “misinformation”? They were almost being accused of witchcraft. Abraham No, I’ve never had. No, never before. Rep. Owen It’s just breathtaking to me. I have forwarded some questions in recent weeks regarding the topic of Emergency Use Authorization to LDH, to the Board of Pharmacy, to the Board of Nursing. Going forward, as we move towards legislative ideas for next year, it has occurred to those of us who have been forced to learn what Emergency Use Authorization was when the pandemic happened — most of us had never heard of it — and we started drilling down on it and said, “Why are we doing this?” And now to find out, when I asked the question to these four agencies, every- one stands in a circle and points right. And there’s nobody saying, “Yeah, I’ve got this, I understand this.”And it seems like it’s pretty