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An Arizona man has died and his wife is in a critical condition after both ingested chloroquine phosphate in an apparent effort to stave off Covid-19.

President Donald Trump has touted the medication form of chloroquine as a possible treatment for the virus.

But the toxic ingredient taken by the Phoenix couple was a chemical commonly used to clean fish tanks.

Shortly after ingestion, the couple fell ill, said Arizona-based hospital system Banner Health.

The couple were both in their 60s.

The woman told NBC News she had seen a televised briefing in which Mr Trump discussed the potential benefits of chloroquine as a treatment Covid-19.

The drug has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis but is unproven for use against the novel coronavirus.

"We saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually," she said. "Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure."

"We were afraid of getting sick," she told NBC.

There are at least 46,548 confirmed cases of the virus throughout the US, with at least 592 deaths.

The couple had used chloroquine previously as a treatment for their koi fish and still had some remaining in their home. This additive is formulated differently than the drug used to treat malaria.

They mixed a small amount of the substance with liquid to drink. Within 20 minutes, both fell ill.

"I started vomiting," she said. "My husband started developing respiratory problems."

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Her husband could not be revived in hospital and she remains in critical care.

"Banner Health experts emphasise that chloroquine, a malaria medication, should not be ingested to treat or prevent [Covid-19]," the health group said in a statement.

Given the uncertainty around Covid-19, we understand that people are trying to find new ways to prevent or treat this virus, but self-medicating is not the way to do so."

Last week, Mr Trump trumpeted the drug as a potential treatment, writing on Twitter that it had "a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine," when taken with the antibiotic azithromycin.

"Trace, test and treat" has been the mantra of global health bodies in tackling the spread of Covid-19. But innumerable cases around the country show it is a model the United States has failed to recreate.

"I'm still sick, it hasn't improved. I'm coughing, I've been feverish and my left lung hurts. There have been times the wheezing and the gurgling in my chest have been so bad at night that it's woken me up. There's no doubt I have all the symptoms."

Claudia Bahorik - who is 69 and lives in Bernville, Pennsylvania - does not say this lightly. As a retired physician herself, she has done her research.

But this is the story of Dr Bahorik's determined, though so far unsuccessful plight - involving clinics, hospitals and even a senator's office - to find out if she has the coronavirus.

It all started as far back as the last week of February. Dr Bahorik had recently been on a trip to New York with her great niece, and soon after developed a cough and a fever, though it appeared to subside.

A 21-year-old woman with no underlying conditions has died after contracting coronavirus, according to her family.

Chloe Middleton, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, died last week.

In a Facebook post, her aunt Emily Mistry said Ms Middleton "had passed away from Covid-19" and urged others to "do your bit" to stop the spread of the disease.

According to government figures, most patients who have died with coronavirus had pre-existing medical conditions.

There have been concerns that younger people were ignoring warnings over its spread, believing the contagion was only a danger to the elderly.

But in a series of Facebook posts, Ms Middleton's family urged the public to heed safety advice and take the virus "seriously".

Her mother, Diane Middleton, wrote: "Please think again.

"Speaking from a personal experience, this so-called virus has taken the life of my 21-year-old daughter."

Ms Mistry added: "My beautiful, kind-hearted 21 year old niece has passed away from Covid-19.

"She had no underlying health conditions."

She said the family was "shattered beyond belief".

"The reality of this virus is only just unfolding before our very eyes," she added. "Please, please adhere to government guidelines.

"Do your bit. Protect yourselves and protect others. The virus isn't spreading, people are spreading the virus."

In a blog post titled “Is God Judging America Today?” a pastor who leads a weekly bible study group for members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet appeared to blame the coronavirus pandemic on several groups, including those who have “a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality.”

America “is experiencing the consequential wrath of God,” the Rev. Ralph Drollinger wrote on his Capitol Ministries blog on March 21.

In addition to gays and lesbians, Drollinger — who The New York Times recently referred to as the Trump Cabinet's “shadow diplomat” — also laid blame on people with “depraved minds,” environmentalists and those who deny the existence of God for igniting "God's wrath."

the gop obstructionists are obstructing passage of the stimulus because they think it's too generous iunemployment comp for low wage workers, who of course are the ones who need it the most. bless their greedy little gop hearts.

If I may ask, do you think that Donald Trump has been trying to deny, downplay and undersell this pandemic from the beginning; and that he continues to do so by trying to set a date on when we can “open up”the country?

It is conventional wisdom that populists are against “elites” – and experts in particular. But rightwing populists aren’t opposed to all elites – they only denounce professionals who claim authority on the basis of special knowledge. Their perverse version of rightwing anti-authoritarianism implies that there is nothing wrong with the wealthy; in fact, the latter can be superior sources of wisdom. Trump putting the advice of “business leaders” above that of infectious disease experts is likely to yield deadly results. But it’s important to understand that the systematic denigration of professionalism started not with the populists – Reagan, Thatcher and other cheerleaders for neoliberalism led the way.

But this picture is itself simplistic. Populists are not by definition liars. They are only committed to one particular empirical falsehood: the notion that they, and only they, represent what populists often call “the real people” – with the implication that other politicians are not only corrupt and “crooked”, but traitors to the people, or, as Trump has often put it, “Un-American”.

More important, it’s not true that today’s rightwing populists are indiscriminately against all elites. They only denounce professionals. Trump supporters did not find it scandalous that his cabinet was full of Wall Street figures. The base does not resent the rich – rather, it aspires to be rich. In their eyes, the wealthy have earned their money, an objective indicator of their “hard work”, or the fact that they really produced something (never mind that the likes of Ross and Mnuchin have never created anything and only shifted money around).

These supposed movers and shakers contrast starkly with professionals who claim authority on the basis of education and special licensing – think lawyers, doctors and professors. Such figures can automatically be maligned by rightwing culture warriors as “condescending” – after all, they tell other people what to do, because they claim to know better. According to Nigel Farage, for instance, the World Health Organization is just another club of “clever people” who want to “bully us”.

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Some might like to read the opinion in the Guardian, by Jan-Werner Müller, political philosopher and historian of political ideas, Professor of Politics at Princeton University

Why do rightwing populist leaders oppose experts?

Quote:

It is conventional wisdom that populists are against “elites” – and experts in particular. But rightwing populists aren’t opposed to all elites – they only denounce professionals who claim authority on the basis of special knowledge. Their perverse version of rightwing anti-authoritarianism implies that there is nothing wrong with the wealthy; in fact, the latter can be superior sources of wisdom. Trump putting the advice of “business leaders” above that of infectious disease experts is likely to yield deadly results. But it’s important to understand that the systematic denigration of professionalism started not with the populists – Reagan, Thatcher and other cheerleaders for neoliberalism led the way.

But this picture is itself simplistic. Populists are not by definition liars. They are only committed to one particular empirical falsehood: the notion that they, and only they, represent what populists often call “the real people” – with the implication that other politicians are not only corrupt and “crooked”, but traitors to the people, or, as Trump has often put it, “Un-American”.

More important, it’s not true that today’s rightwing populists are indiscriminately against all elites. They only denounce professionals. Trump supporters did not find it scandalous that his cabinet was full of Wall Street figures. The base does not resent the rich – rather, it aspires to be rich. In their eyes, the wealthy have earned their money, an objective indicator of their “hard work”, or the fact that they really produced something (never mind that the likes of Ross and Mnuchin have never created anything and only shifted money around).

These supposed movers and shakers contrast starkly with professionals who claim authority on the basis of education and special licensing – think lawyers, doctors and professors. Such figures can automatically be maligned by rightwing culture warriors as “condescending” – after all, they tell other people what to do, because they claim to know better. According to Nigel Farage, for instance, the World Health Organization is just another club of “clever people” who want to “bully us”.

... ... ...

The lesson is not that professionalism should replace democratic politics, or, for that matter, widespread participation by citizens – a conclusion drawn by unashamedly elitist liberals who have sought to reinstate professional gatekeepers everywhere, but especially in primaries. Citizens still know best what their problems are; professionals – in perfectly non-condescending ways – play a crucial role in addressing them. Or, as John Dewey, the greatest American philosopher of democracy in the 20th century, put it, “no government by experts in which the masses do not have the chance to inform the experts as to their needs can be anything but an oligarchy managed in the interests of the few.”

The administration’s strategy of invoking but not using the wartime power appears in part designed to meet its political needs. At Tuesday’s briefing, for example, Vice President Pence did not directly contradict Gaynor’s comments but said that “at this point no one said no” to federal requests or orders.

Trump’s public posture aligns with that of many conservatives and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the most powerful voice of corporate America, which dismisses the need for such government intervention.

Private companies have stepped up on their own to increase production and, where they can, to modify operations to make products that are needed, the chamber said.

The idea that “the government would do a better job in building all of this stuff and distributing it … is a hard claim to defend given the government’s track record,” said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the chamber.

“The folks who actually know how to build things are raising their hand and saying, ‘We can do it.’ That’s happening right now. Companies are doing this,” he said.

But switching from normal operations to meet a sudden emergency requires businesses to spend money on new equipment and other needs.

In the past, companies have been reluctant to make such new investments quickly and on their own when they could not be sure they could recover those expenses. The DPA permits the government to give guaranteed loans or install equipment to protect the companies financially.

It also allows the government to control sales and distribution of the new products, to set priorities and assure that supplies go where the need is greatest.

The Trump administration has highlighted a number of companies that have come forward on their own. Pence said Apple was donating 9 million N95 protective masks for health care professionals.

Others like General Motors and Ford are using their manufacturing capabilities to help boost production of medical equipment such as ventilators, respirators and face shields, although it will take two to three months for some of the products to roll out of the factory.

“I think they are responding to market needs. It’s in their financial interest to do so,” said Joshua Aguilar, a Morningstar analyst, referring to 3M’s plan to double the production of N95 masks over the next year.

But many state officials, medical experts, and economists have been skeptical that relying on volunteers and market forces would assure that production of emergency supplies were produced quickly enough or in sufficient volume to meet the need. Governors have urged the administration to take control of the distribution of vital medical supplies and stop bidding wars.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has grown increasingly angry as COVID-19 cases have exceeded 26,000 in his state, about half of the infections recorded in the United States. On Tuesday he lashed out at the Trump administration’s failure to use the DPA, saying the law was made precisely for a time like now.

“When we went to war, we didn’t say, ‘Any company out there want to build a battleship? … Maybe a couple of you guys can get together and build a battleship … maybe, you think?’” he said, dripping with sarcasm. “That’s not how you did it. The president’s said it’s a war. It is a war. Well, then, act like it’s a war.”