Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An outpatient medical treatment protocol for COVID-19 was recently detailed in a peer reviewed paper authored by over 20 medical doctors, including five PhDs, and published in the respected American Journal of Medicine. This treatment protocol suggests outpatients over 50 years of age or those with a single comorbidity be immediately treated with a combination of drugs including zinc, hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic. This protocol is already being used by many doctors reporting great success, such as Dr Brian Tyson from California, who has treated 1,700 patients, with one hospitalisation and zero deaths. By comparison, if Dr Tyson had had the same case fatality rate as Victoria, he would have over 60 dead patients. Yet Australians are currently being denied access to this medical treatment protocol due to the unprecedented actions of state chief medical officers, who have interfered in the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship and banned doctors from prescribing hydroxychloroquine. It is a completely unsatisfactory situation that Australians are being denied access to a potentially life-saving medical treatment which is set out in peer reviewed and published studies in the American Journal of Medicine. This ban must end, and I call on members of the opposition not to politicise this. People are dying. You should be— (Time expired)