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Falsified Cures in the Pandemic

Posted on by cgreen6

President Trump’s premature praise of hydroxychloroquine, a drug used for malaria among other ailments, led many to search for prescriptions, perhaps out of desperation. Although no reputable medical organization has deemed it useful for treating COVID-19, his influence reached internationally, leading to counterfeit hydroxychloroquine products being marketed as COVID-preventative in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, and Niger. 

This type of scam isn’t new. What the WHO calls “falsified medication” has been present internationally for decades; the uncertainty brought on by this pandemic, especially in countries with little medical infrastructure, has only made the business more lucrative. For example, the WHO recently identified a con imitating standard COVID-19 tests in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, and the US. While not physically harmful, these tests still drain desperate people of their money and time.

In some cases, these frauds are promoted by the government. Brazil, too, is focusing on hydroxychloroquine, with President Jair Bolsonaro presenting a sample to thousands of cheering fans at a rally, only to test positive for the virus days later. In Peru, ivermectin, used to treat intestinal worms, has also been promoted; due to low amounts of human-safe versions existing, hundreds of people have been treated by government groups with (potentially lethal) veterinary-grade medication. In Bolivia, chlorine dioxide “elixirs” have been administered by the government, to the point that their congress is considering breaking off from the WHO, which has warned against this treatment repeatedly. 

So what can be done to stop this, if anything? We could talk directly about COVID-19 and aim for ethical distribution of a real cure once it’s found, but falsified medication exists with or without a pandemic. For answers, we must look to the root causes.

According to a 2017 report by the WHO, the main risks for falsified medications spreading are constrained access to medical care, weak technical capacity, and poor governance. All of these are extremely complex issues rooted in decades-long struggles such as colonization, fascism, and other forms of oppression. When countries are faced with threats, greed-fueled salespeople exploit uncertainty and lack of education for profit—especially when they are rarely punished for doing so. Governments, too, attempt to satiate restless populations by ensuring a cure, providing false security to working citizens in order to keep their economy going.

So while none of these things can be fixed immediately, the WHO has some ideas of what other world powers can do about it. They intend to give medical professionals technologies which allow them to identify false medication efficiently, as well as create their own network of professionals that connect local medical authorities to global ones. They’ve also created a database of falsified medications, with which they can provide advice to country leaders on the most effective responses. But the pandemic has revealed a more alarming development: the peddlers are not simply con artists, but governments.

To actually intervene in government-run frauds, the WHO needs to be given more power by countries who support it. It needs to be non-profit and non-partisan, as health isn’t a capitalistic nor political issue. Although this path is more complicated than it sounds, in order to get to even more complex, bigger-picture issues, we must put power and trust to the organizations which have transparency, altruism, and a desire to keep people safe, as only healthy people can create a healthy society.

Works Cited

Pisani, Elizabeth. WHO Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for Substandard and Falsified Medical Products. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2017. World Health Organization, www.who.int/medicines/regulation/ssffc/publications/GSMSreport_EN.pdf?ua=1. Accessed 4 Aug. 2020.

Silvia Trigo, María, et al. “With Officials’ Backing, Dubious Virus Remedies Surge in Latin America.” The New York Times, 23 July 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/world/americas/chlorine-coronavirus-bolivia-latin-america.html?campaign_id=154&emc=edit_cb_20200723&instance_id=20571&nl=coronavirus-briefing&regi_id=97898675&segment_id=34207&te=1&user_id=65f3f0890e4b5db996dcd1b80896f5a7. Accessed 24 July 2020.

WHO Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for Substandard and Falsified Medical Products. “Medical Product Alert N°3/2020.” World Health Organization, 21 Mar. 2020, www.who.int/news-room/detail/31-03-2020-medical-product-alert-n-3-2020. Accessed 6 Aug. 2020.

WHO Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for Substandard and Falsified Medical Products. “Medical Product Alert N°4/2020.” World Health Organization, 9 Apr. 2020, www.who.int/news-room/detail/09-04-2020-medical-product-alert-n4-2020. Accessed 4 Aug. 2020.

 

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35 Comments

  1. This article does an all around sufficient job in providing the correct details and ideas behind certain political leaders and other major role models taking advantage of fake medication to fulfill ones own political agenda or thought. I like the addition of looking at both Peru and Brazil alongside viewing Trump as those countries in particular are having certain consequences of how the federal governments of each respected nation isn’t doing the clearest and best job in containing the virus. This sort of falsely hood could make followers of specific political party leaders inclined that they should also take these drugs such as hydroxychloroquine in order to be able to go back and live a normal life, free of charge of a mask and keeping distance while in public. I also enjoy how you included WHO in your blog as it helps to highlight the precautions they have set dating back to 2017 on certain counterfeit drugs that could assist people with certain illnesses. It seems like the issue has been crystal clear for a couple years now and that as a global power front, nations should come together and work with one another in able to fully ensure that a certain medication works or not. Because of the notion of reaching complete “vaccine nationalism”, each country has been playing risky in order for finding a potential vaccine as a recent report was stated by Russia pertaining to the fact that they think they found a suitable vaccine with limited human trials and even Putin jumped to the conclusion of even giving his kid this drug. Without the necessary guidelines too dictate the needed affects/assistance a certain drug is able to do, who knows if any nation is able to find the true vaccine.

  2. A lot of people are desperate to find a cure and an end to the spread of the virus. They are willing to try anything to guarantee their safety in this uncertain time. As a result, they are being taken advantage of and sold falsified medications under the pretense that they will be safe from the virus. I think we need to do more work to educate ourselves on what medical professionals are saying so that we are not susceptible to this dis- and misinformation. Unfortunately, these theories about possible cures spread quickly which leads to many people promoting, administering, and searching for these medicines. I like your proposal to work towards intervening in the frauds, both government-run and individually run. I also agree that this will take time to dismantle. I believe that we should try to promote the truth as well as WHO’s statements about falsified cures and vaccines until the spread of disinformation and misinformation is stopped.

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