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Vol. 40 | Issue 34 | May 27-June 2, 2020
Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen
News & Views Feedback/Comics ................. 5 News ...................................... 6 Informed Dissent .................. 8
No news is bad news
Why reporter M.L. Elrick supports the Metro Times Press Club By M.L. Elrick
I’ve been a fan of the Metro Times long before 2014, when they named me “Best Local Journalist Who’s Not Charlie LeDuff,” a category that I understand has since been retired from the annual “Reader’s Choice” poll. My relationship with the paper goes back to the 1980s, when it was really the only place to find out where to catch the coolest acts and when it was the epitome of the crusading alternative newsweekly. It had the best cartoons, the edgiest writers, and the most far-out stories. Even the ads blew my mind — more so because I didn’t have the internet to explain to me what BBW was, and not so much because I was “bi-curious” (not that there’s anything wrong with that). In the early 2000s, the Metro Times was as dogged digging into Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick as any other news organization, though even I thought it was more than a little cheeky to refer to Hizzoner as “the Kwamster.” But that’s the beauty of the alternative press. Not only are there no sacred cows, but after milking the Guernsey for all she’s worth, you get to twist the nipple — as many as you can grab. I just typed: “A lot has changed over the last 35 years or so, the inevitable
consequence of the entire world believing that the best things in life, like the Metro Times, should be free.” But the truth is that so much has changed over the last 90 days that my friends and friendly competitors at the Metro Times have found that their uncertain future is certain to be curtains if those of us who rely on the paper don’t step up and put some money on the barrelhead. I don’t believe in asking people to do anything I wouldn’t do. So I put my money where my mouth is and joined the Press Club. I hear there are perks, but keeping the presses rolling (literally or figuratively) is more than enough for me. Because only two things haven’t changed since I first picked up the Metro Times back in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High days: When I ask my favorite question — “Who watches the watchmen?” — more often than not, the answer is “the Metro Times.” And I’m still not bi-curious (not that there’s anything wrong with that). M.L. Elrick is an investigative reporter and host of the M.L. Soul of Detroit podcast.
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How a potential COVID-19 drug became a political flashpoint in Michigan ....... 10
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NEWS & VIEWS Feedback
W e received responses to Lee D eV ito’ s story, “ The coronaviru s has w reaked havoc on D etroit’ s hospitality and entertainment — and a federal b ailou t isn’ t helping.” Harry Palmer: E ngland, C anada, most all of E urop e handled the economic fall out from the p andemic 100 times better than we did.
T hey p aid the emp loyees directly, 80% of their wages. T he had univ ersal healthcare, so no one worried about losing their healthcare. I nstead of more dismantling of it by the GO P , this p andemic demonstrated why we need a BI GGE R social safety net, and how much we’re behind the
rest of the industrializ ed world . michael zubas: We gotta keep A merica on life sup p ort, and the economy p rimed for re-ingition. I nstead, we are p ump ing gas in the engine, and trying to turn it ov er now, with all this gunk and stuff in it . U ntil we get the gunk out? T he engine will run bad. B-A -D bad. Let’s hope we find that balance. And a massiv e amount of tests. T he F eds are failing us, because their donors got what they wanted, and that’s all they seem to care about, in the end. A nother case of the 1% winning by being the first ones to the “bread line” and whispering to the cook “close up after me” and they did.
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NEWS & VIEWS A mess in Midland Owners of dam flooding Midland ignored federal regulators for years P hotos b y Ru sty Y ou ng
As if things weren’t already bad
enough in Michigan, last week, dams in Edenville and Sanford ooded. ov. retchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency and ordered all residents to evacuate the area immediately. “I f you hav e not ev acuated the area, do so now and get somewhere safe,” Whitmer said in a statement. “ his is unlike anything we’ve seen in Midland County.” I t may be unlike anything we’v e ev er seen, but federal regulators saw this coming. he ederal Energy Regulatory C ommission has long warned the owners to increase cap acity of the E denv ille dam’s spillways to prevent a ood, going as far back as . he agency issued another warning in 2004 when the ownership changed hands to a comp any called Boyce H ydro LLC , and another in 2017 , when it declared the dam to be a “high hazard.” In 20 , the ERC revoked Boyce H ydro’s license, p romp ting years of litigation. P art of the reason for the feet-dragging was that Boyce H ydro was p lanning to sell the system that the dam was p art of to a regional authority in 2022 for . million — but the cost of imp rov ing the dams was expected to be 00 million. Boyce Hydro argued that the ERC should not rev oke its license because it would make the sale less attractive. he company also argued that the “odds of a probable maximum ood’ event occurring in the nex t 5 to 10 years is 5 to
10 in one million,” according to federal records. here is another entity that saw this coming, too: the media. In 20 , after a dam in O rov ille, C alifornia was breached, the D etroit Free P ress warned “Michigan’s aging, crumbling dams p ose a risk.” he Michigan Department of E nv ironmental Q uality found all but six of the dams it oversees were app roaching or p ast 5 0 years old, the av erage engineered life span for a dam. And the American Society of Civil Engineers stated in a 2009 rep ort that more than 90% of Michigan’s nearly 2,6 00 dams will reach or ex ceed their design life by 2020. P erhap s unsurp risingly for the p riv ate owner of a dam who has rep eatedly skirted federal regulation, Boyce H ydro LLC owner Lee Mueller is an ardent supporter of President Donald rump. H e was p hotograp hed wearing a “Make America reat Again” hat in a 20 Rueters story about the Mueller Report (no relation) , where his wife was q uoted saying “I v iew the Mueller rep ort as being one battle in a war against the U nited States of America’s founding principles and against Donald rump.” We’re not sure this is what rump meant when he promised to “drain the swamp,” however. As of press time, Mueller, who lives in Las V egas, had not commented on the crisis his dam caused in Michigan. — Lee D eV ito
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NEWS & VIEWS
You thought 2016 was bad? Buckle up, buttercup.
BRANDON STIVERS
Informed Dissent
Our long, hot, stupid summer By Jeffrey C. Billman
Last week, we discussed
“O bamagate,” a Q A non thread that found life in a p residential hydrox ychloroq uine hallucination. T o recap : Barack O bama and Joe Biden sup p osedly engineered a corrup t F BI / deep state consp iracy to ensnare D onald T rump ’s camp aign in a R ussia-collusion hoax , but — because they’re v ery dev ious — they didn’t emp loy this scheme to stop T rump from getting elected. ( I n fact, the consp irators ensured his v ictory by announcing an inv estigation into his op p onent j ust before the election. ) T hey then manip ulated his national security adv iser into lying to F BI agents, then forced the p resident to obstruct a sp ecial counsel inv estigation during which a bunch of his associates p leaded guilty to all kinds of crimes. T he deep state p lays the long game, y’all. T his would be funny-stupid if it remained the p rov enance of an addled consp iracy theorist, his cable news p rop agandists, and an incel chatroom. I nstead, the ruling p olitical p arty, not to mention the p oliticiz ed D ep artment of Justice, is p retending to take it seriously — or, worse, has drunk the K ool-A id — which is more scary-stupid. E ither way, dais-p ounding congressional hearings into the origins of the R ussia inv estigation and ginned-up p rosecutions of the inv estigators are coming, j ust in
time for the N ov ember election. H ere, by the way, is what R ep ublicans see as “ev idence” of the p lot: ust before leaving o ce, outgoing national security adv iser S usan R ice sent herself an email memorializ ing a brief meeting that P resident O bama’s intelligence team had about Michael F lynn shortly after he p romised R ussia that T rump would ease sanctions p ut in p lace as p unishment for election interference. I n the email, R ice wrote that O bama said he wanted ev erything done by the book, which meant the White H ouse should stay out of law-enforcement matters. “F rom a national security p ersp ectiv e, howev er, P resident O bama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it related to R ussia. ” F BI director James C omey said he had concerns about F lynn but no ev idence he was leaking sensitiv e information. O bama told C omey to adv ise him if anything changed. T he meeting ended. A ccording to R ep ublicans, this email, which the T rump administration declassified, is proof that bama was spying on T rump . S enator Martha Blackburn: “S usan R ice knew ex actly what she was doing. T hat’s why she wrote herself emails in a desp erate attemp t to cov er her tracks. ” [ Pauses, stares at camera. ]
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With T rump down between 8 ( F ox N ews) and 11 ( Q uinnip iac) p oints in the p olls, our long, hot, stup id summer is j ust beginning. While S enator Lindsey Graham will hold hearings on “O bamagate,” fellow licksp ittle S enator R on Johnson has taken a renewed interest in Burisma, the U krainian energy comp any that handsomely p aid H unter Biden for a board p osition, another outrage in search of a scandal. A s v ice p resident, Joe Biden lev eraged loan guarantees to force U kraine’s p resident to fire a prosecutor. rump’s Burisma theory — p ursued by globetrotting sup ersleuth R udy Giuliani — is that he did so because the p rosecutor was inv estigating H unter and the corrup t Burisma. E x cep t he wasn’t inv estigating Burisma — or any corrup tion. T hat was the p roblem. Biden was acting in furtherance of U . S . , E urop ean U nion, and I nternational Monetary F und p olicy; they believ ed the p rosecutor turned a blind eye to corrup tion, which imp eded economic reform in U kraine. T rump got imp eached after demanding that U kraine announce an inv estigation into the Bidens — as well as a crackp ot theory about the D N C email serv er — in ex change for military aid. T here’s nothing new now, but ohnson wants to first offer rump a veneer of vindication, and second, env elop the Bidens in a cloud of vague, ill-defined scandal. I ndeed, endless Benghaz i hearings,
though they uncov ered no wrongdoing, damaged H illary C linton’s ap p rov al ratings. C reate enough smoke, and p eop le will assume there’s fire somewhere. T here’s no reason not to call that p lay again. A gain, this is the tip of the ( melting) iceberg. rump just fired a State Department insp ector general for doing his j ob too well, p art of an ongoing p urge of anyone who would dare hold him accountable, and R ep ublicans cheered him on. T he P Senate confirmed — I shit you not — a Q A non-curious T rump loyalist named ohn Ratcliffe as head of the country’s intelligence apparatus, though he has basically z ero background in intelligence. T he S up reme C ourt, meanwhile, ap p ears to be leaning into the unitary p residency, blocking access to documents that C ongress needs to conduct ov ersight. We’re nearing 100,000 C O V I D -19 deaths in three months — many of which could’v e been p rev ented if the p resident listened to ex p erts and/ or didn’t hav e the attention span of a glue-hu ng 12-year-old — and T rump is still hawking hydrox ychloroq uine, ev en as science tells us it’s much more dangerous than help ful for C O V I D p atients. Meanwhile, he won’t wear a mask in p ublic — though they actually sav e liv es — because he wants us to p retend that ev erything is normal. ( Besides, those things are for betas. ) T rump ’s reelection always hinged on a good economy. With unemp loyment at Great D ep ression lev els, he needs you to Get Back to Work, p andemic or not. T o that end, Mitch McC onnell wants to end the federal unemployment benefits C ongress p assed in March so that you layabouts will stop leeching off ncle S am. A ll ov er the country, R ep ublicans are ramp ing up p ressure to reop en state economies, conseq uences be damned. I n the likely ev ent of a second wav e this fall, T rump says, he won’t shut anything down no matter what p ublic health ex p erts say. T o be sure, T rump doesn’t hav e a monop oly on stup id. O n F riday, Joe Biden told radio host C harlamagne T ha God that if black v oters sup p ort T rump , “you ain’t black,” which is definitely not something a white boomer should ev er say. I f there’s an up side, it’s that one stup id outburst might head off a more conseq uential stup id decision. O n T hursday, we learned that Biden was formally v etting Minnesota S enator A my K lobuchar, a gold standard milq uetoast suburban WA S P , for v ice p resident. P erhap s needing to make amends with younger A frican A mericans might insp ire Gramp s to make a slightly less mind-dulling choice. The coronavirus has made life difficult for independent media. You can help keep Informed Dissent viable by contributing to patreon.com/jeffreycbillman.
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President Trump claims hydroxychloroquine could be a ‘game changer’ for COVID-19. Now the drug is a political flashpoint in Michigan By Lee DeVito 10 May 27-June 2, 2020 | metrotimes.com
FEATURE
If you’ve felt lately that the reality-TV-show presidency of Donald Trump has begun to feel a bit like an infomercial, you’d be forgiven. Trump has increasingly taken airtime to push an antimalarial drug called hydroxychloroquine as a possible, albeit unproven, coronavirus medication. In repeated, cringe-worthy press briefings throughout the crisis, an unofficial slogan for the drug has emerged from Trump: “What do you have to lose?” Well, possibly a lot. While hydroxychloroquine and its chemical cousin chloroquine have long been approved by the FDA to treat malaria, and hydroxychloroquine has been approved to treat lupus and arthritis, the Food & Drug Administration issued a warning in April that they should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of a hospital setting or clinical trials due to risk of potential heart rhythm problems. So last week, the (hopefully) final season of The Trump Show took a dramatic twist when the president revealed he had secretly been taking hydroxychloroquine himself for about a week and a half as a preventive measure. Or at least that’s what he claimed. “All I can tell you is so far I seem to be OK,” Trump said last Monday. “I get a lot of tremendously positive news on the hydroxy.” Later that day, Trump’s physician Sean Conley issued a memo. “After numerous discussions he and I had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded that the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the risks,” he wrote, adding that he was monitoring “myriad studies investigating potential COVID-19 therapies.” Notably, the memo fell short of confirming that he prescribed the drug for Trump or that the president was even actually taking it. Still, Trump’s claim was shocking
because a 2018 physical examination showed that he has a common form of heart disease, potentially putting him at risk for death. Plus, other possible hydroxychloroquine side effects include hallucinations, paranoia, and psychosis. By Sunday, or 1,000 years in Trump Time, the president claimed he was no longer taking the drug — but declined to say why. “Finished, just finished,” Trump told Sinclair Broadcasting. “And by the way, I’m still here. To the best of my knowledge, here I am.” It was just the latest dramatic episode involving the drug. A month earlier, Trump got a full-throated testimonial from Democratic state Rep. Karen Whitsett, of Detroit, who said that she believed the drug cured her COVID-19 within just a few hours of taking it. Whitsett told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that as her condition worsened in March, as Detroit and especially Black Detroiters were hit hard by the virus, she learned of the drug from Trump, but “had to beg and plead and go through a whole lot to try to get the medication.” That month, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs had issued a state order prohibiting the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19, threatening “administrative action” against doctors who prescribed the drugs. The move drew accusations from
the right that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who had been sparring with Trump on national TV over his slow coronavirus response and federal aid for Michigan, had “banned” the drugs merely to spite the president. “How many lives were lost because Gov. Shitmer was playing politics?” a typical Metro Times troll comment from that time read. (Within weeks, as the COVID-19 death toll soared into the thousands and it was clear that the coronavirus was disproportionately impacting Black communities, the right swiftly changed its tune, declaring the coronavirus crisis to be overblown.) It turned out that it was actually Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey who asked the governor to issue the letter, later telling The Detroit News that the intent of the prohibition was to make sure that the drug was being reserved for non-COVID-19 patients. “We needed something to prevent [the drugs] from becoming the next toilet paper,” he said. The fear was not without merit: In March, Propublica reported that some doctors were indeed prescribing hydroxychloroquine for themselves and their family members and hoarding supplies. And Bloomberg reported that hydroxychloroquine prescriptions soared to 298,660 during the week of March 20, more than doubling from a week earlier. Within days, however, LARA rescinded the ban on the drugs, as the federal government released medications from its stockpiles. None of that fit Trump’s narrative, however, which Whitsett was all too happy to play into. “If President Trump had not talked about this, it wouldn’t have been something that would be accessible for anyone to be able to get right now,” she told Fox News. This pleased Trump. “Congratulations to State Representative Karen Whitsett of Michigan,” he
tweeted. “So glad you are getting better!” He later invited her to the White House. (In response, Detroit Democrats unanimously voted to censure her for “endangering the health, safety, and welfare of her constituents, the city of Detroit, and the state of Michigan.”) The drug’s Michigan connections didn’t end there. In April, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called up Vice President Mike Pence and arranged for the nation’s first large-scale study of the drug’s effect on the coronavirus to take place at Henry Ford Hospital. The announcement drew praise, but also backlash on social media, with people recalling the infamous and deadly Tuskegee experiment of the 20th Century. In the experiment, 600 Black men were told they were receiving free health care but were actually being observed to see the effects of untreated syphilis — sowing distrust of the health care system in the Black community. For all the buzz about hydroxychloroquine, the fact remains that it’s still an unproven COVID-19 treatment. And there are plenty of early signs that cast doubt on Trump’s claims. A study published last week in the medical journal Lancet that looked at 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that COVID-19 patients who received hydroxychloroquine had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not — a 34 percent increase in risk of mortality and a 137 percent increased risk of a serious heart arrhythmias. For those receiving hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, a combination promoted by Trump on Twitter, there was a 45 percent increased risk of death and a 411 percent increased risk of serious heart arrhythmias. “It’s one thing not to have benefit, but this shows distinct harm,” Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of
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the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told The Washington Post. “If there was ever hope for this drug, this is the death of it.” In the meantime, Trump has continued to stoke a hydroxychloromania that threatens to distract from the science — and could endanger lives.
Trump’s obsession
How did hydroxychloroquine become a major player in the coronavirus crisis? Many on the left latched onto a New York Times article that found Trump and several of his associates could stand to profit from the drug if it proved to be an effective coronavirus treatment. According to the report, Trump has “a small personal financial interest” in anofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, a brandname version of hydroxychloroquine. A follow-up Washington Post story debunked the claim, pointing out that compared to his net worth, Trump’s investments in anofi are negligible “If you were worth $100,000, it would be like worrying about the nickel in your pocket,” the Post’s correspondent Philip Bump wrote. (Then again, Trump is kind of a notorious cheapskate: Spy magazine famously pranked him in the ’90s by sending increasingly smaller checks to see if he would cash them. Trump was one of only two people to cash a $0.13 check.) As Media Matters pointed out, the root of Trump’s obsession with the drug is likely much more mundane: a natural consequence of the Trump-Fox News pipeline. After initially downplaying the coronavirus crisis as a “hoax,” Fox News pivoted in March, as the virus took hold across the country. Part of the pivot included calming its viewers with possible quick fixes ne of those was hydroxychloroquine, which the network began touting as early as March 12. Lawyer Gregory Rigano discussed a controversial French study pointing to hydroxychloroquine’s purported benefits on March and March , telling The Ingraham Angle that “we have strong reason to believe that a preventative dose of hydroxychloroquine is going to prevent the virus from attaching to the body and just get rid of it completely.” n March , Trump started shilling the drug at a press briefing, saying it has “shown very encouraging — very, very encouraging early results.” That night, Ingraham boasted on her show that Trump learned about the drug because of her coverage, and after his press conference the drug company Bayer donated 3 million of the pills to the Trump administration. “ ith the president effectively
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Donald J. Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence at a coronavirus update briefing in March. OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY ANDREA HANKS
signing off on Fox’s positive coverage of the malaria drugs, the Fox-Trump feedback loop was engaged,” Media Matters reported. “Trump’s remarks triggered more Fox commentary about the potential benefits of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which in turn kept them fresh in his mind and led to more statements, which led to more coverage on the network.” The Trump-Fox News feedback loop is not perfect, however. The day Trump claimed he was taking the drug, host
same. We miss the great Roger Ailes,” he tweeted, referencing the network’s disgraced former who was ousted after sexual assault allegations. “You have more anti-Trump people, by far, than ever before. Looking for a new outlet!”) Trump’s fixation on the drug has caused his top health o cials much consternation. In March, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectiousdisease expert, contradicted Trump during one of those cringe-worthy press briefings “The information
For all the buzz about hydroxychloroquine, the fact remains that it’s still an unproven COVID-19 treatment. Neil Cavuto reacted to the news in real time with shock on his show. “That was stunning,” Cavuto said, mentioning studies about the potentially fatal effects of the drug on patients with heart conditions. “If you are in a risky population here and you are taking this as a preventive treatment to ward off the virus or in a worst-case scenario, you are dealing with the virus and you are in this vulnerable population — it will kill you. I cannot stress enough: This will kill you.” (That evening, Trump took to Twitter to say that Fox was no longer his favorite channel “ FoxNews is no longer the
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that you’re referring to specifically is anecdotal,” he said of the drug. “It was not done in a controlled clinical trial. o you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.” “I don’t want to embarrass him,” Fauci later told The New York Times. “I don’t want to act like a tough guy, like I stood up to the president. I just want to get the facts out ” In another joint press briefing in April, Trump interrupted Fauci from answering a reporter’s question about the drug, saying, “Do you know how many times he’s answered that question Maybe ” tunned, Fauci just stood there, awkwardly smiling.
Things came to a head in April, when Dr. Rick Bright — then-director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the federal agency tasked with developing a coronavirus vaccine filed a whistleblower complaint, alleging he was ousted from his position because he resisted pressure to push hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as I - treatments ne example cited in the complaint was the 3 million-pill donation from Bayer that was a direct result of the Fox-Trump feedback loop right was concerned because the pills came from facilities in Pakistan and India that were not approved by the F A and therefore not approved for use in the United States. “While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public,” Bright said in a statement. “I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitali ed patients with confirmed I - while under the supervision of a physician.” The Bayer donation was ultimately approved, along with other massive donations from pharmaceutical companies, and added to the federal Strategic National Stockpile.
Drinking the Kool-Aid
Trump’s repeated touting of the drug has not been without consequence. An incident in March that called to
mind the Jonestown cult massacre saw an Arizona man and his wife hospitalized after the couple, both in their 60s, ingested a form of chloroquine phosphate. The version of the chemical they took, however, was an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks. The man died of cardiac arrest. “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,” Dr. Daniel Brooks of Arizona’s Banner Health hospital told NPR. Hence the clinical trials. Unlike the Lancet report, which centered on COVID-19 patients, the Henry Ford Health System study is looking at hydroxychlorquine’s effectiveness as a prophylactic, or preventive measure for COVID-19. The study is seeking , first responders in southeast Michigan — health care workers, firefighters, police o cers, and others who are at high risk of coming in contact with the coronavirus — to volunteer to take the drug. Dr. William O’Neill, a cardiologist at Henry Ford Hospital who is leading the study, even volunteered to be its first test subject. “I wanted to be the first patient, but the ethics group said that I can’t be in the trial and be one of the investigators of the trial,” he tells Metro Times. But O’Neill’s son, also a cardiologist at the hospital, is participating in the study. O’Neill says so far, some 2,000 volunteers have registered to enroll, and about 600 are actively taking medication. Due to the drug’s possible adverse reactions in people with heart conditions, all volunteers are screened for heart diseases, particularly those with a condition known as Long QT syndrome, as well as anyone with a history of sudden death in their families. The medication comes from the Strategic National Stockpile, so the study will not interfere with non-COVID patients who need it. (The pills were donated by Mylan, and were manufactured at the company’s facility in West Virginia.) O’Neill says an interim analysis is expected by the end of July. The study was prompted by observations in China, where the virus originated, that found around 200 patients who had already been taking hydroxychloroquine for lupus therapy appeared to not become infected with COVID-19. In Italy, another country that was hit hard by the pandemic, doctors found that only 20 out of 65,000 patients taking Plaquenil to treat rheumatic diseases contracted the coronavirus. “It looks like it’s very, very effective in preventing people from getting the illness,” O’Neill says, noting that the drug had already long been prescribed
for people traveling to malaria-prone regions of the world as a preventive measure. “We’re not advocating it right now e’re just trying to scientifically study whether it’s effective or not ” Most importantly, the study is randomized and double-blind, meaning that neither the person taking the medication nor the doctors administering the medication know if they’re taking hydroxychloroquine or a placebo. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the former health director of the City of Detroit who ran against Whitmer as a progressive Democratic candidate for Governor, says double-blind tests are “the gold standard” for science. And that, he says, is what’s getting lost amid the politics surrounding the drug. “The only reason people are talking about hydroxychloroquine is because Donald Trump said anything about it,” El-Sayed says. “He has this remarkable capacity to politicize everything he touches in a very divisive way. If he never said anything about it, it would be an obscure drug that people who are doctors or who have chronic autoimmune diseases would know about, and everyone else would have never heard of it.” El-Sayed says “there’s a deeper issue here, which is about the sanctity and the process of science. If you believe in science, then we let science tell you what we should be putting in people’s bodies to prevent or treat a very serious infectious disease. It’s a process by which we come to understand whether or not this drug is effective for the stated purposes, and whether or not it’s safe. And now, the evidence suggests that the safety outweighs the e cacy, and we shouldn’t be using it for this purpose.” But “that doesn’t seem to matter because now Donald Trump has put his golden letters on it, and, it’s turned it into this Republican talking point about how those of us who believe in science are rooting against the treatment, which is absurd,” he says. “Science literally is about putting your biases aside. Nobody’s rooting against Trump. We’re rooting against coronavirus, and we’re rooting for science to help us beat the coronavirus because it’s been the best tool that we’ve ever had to prevent and cure disease in humans.” The science could very well find hydroxychloroquine to be an effective prophylactic against COVID-19, but we won’t know until a double-blind, randomized trial concludes as much. “It shouldn’t be played out in a public political stage,” El-Sayed says. For all the energy spent on arguing about hydroxychloroquine, and despite Trump calling it a “game-changer,” it’s not even the most promising COVID-19 treatment on the horizon. There are
Dr. William O’Neill
COURTESY OF HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM
‘We’re not advocating it right now. We’re just trying to scientifically study whether it’s effective or not.’ hundreds of trials for potential vaccines underway, with the hope that they could cure the disease. Around the world, some of the countries that have best been able to manage the spread of the coronavirus have implemented strategies like cellphone-enabled contact tracing, which tracks who has the virus and everyone they could have potentially transmitted it to. But many of those countries have something the U.S. doesn’t: universal health care. El-Sayed, a proponent of Medicare for All, believes the coronavirus crisis could have been better managed under that system. “There’s no doubt that under Medicare for All this would have been so much more e ciently handled,” he says. “Not only would 27 million people not have lost their health insurance
because they lost their jobs, but the health care system itself wouldn’t be facing bankruptcy while it’s also trying to battle a major pandemic. We would have the [Personal Protection Equipment], the ventilators, and the hospital capacity that we needed. The investment in prevention could have been so much greater because the government [would have] an incentive to protect everyone. It would be an elegant solution to all of those problems.” For now, El-Sayed says “the limitations of the leadership of our federal government right now give me no confidence” in a robust contact tracing and testing system mobilizing anytime soon. “We don’t have that in the federal government, and we’re not going to have that at least until next January,” he says.
metrotimes.com | May 27-June 2, 2020
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CULTURE
Horoscopes By C al G arrison
ARIES: March 21 – April 20 Y ou j ust woke up to the fact that it’s time to dig a little deep er. T he idea that you had it all figured out has gone up in smoke. Along with it, the feelings you’ve been nursing for people you thought would be the answer to your p rayers hav e rev ealed themselv es to be a total fantasy. hat realization has led you to see that you always seem to be attracted to the last thing you need. As you begin to see the error of your ways, your behavior is bound to change. Kick up your heels and rejoice. Maybe now what has always been an issue will smooth out and yield the fulfillment you need.
LEO: July 21 – August 20 ou can’t figure out why things got messed up . T o believ e that your best-laid plans are still working keeps you stuck in a situation that has lost its charm. In moments it’s easy to convince yourself that you belong here. At other times, health issues, along with con icts that keep stirring up darker emotions, make it harder to put on a Happy ace. etting to the bottom of this may req uire you to 86 all of it and get back to Square ne. It’s always easier to face the truth and let it set you free than it is to keep up appearances and ignore what’s happening at the heart of things.
SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 21 – Dec. 20 I t would be great if you could stop looking through the rear-view mirror. hat was then, this is now where are you at? While I understand the need to keep the past alive or to return to your glory days, you’d do better to consider who you are now. What lies up on the road ahead looks phenomenal. he gap between those possibilities and what’s going on at the moment is blocked by issues that have been hiding in the walls of your heart since the day you were born. As much as you think you’ve got it all figured out, it’s time to buckle down, buckle up, and reckon with that stuff.
A R S: April 2 May 20 Coming out on the other side of what looks to be a real hard time, here you are, still alive and kicking. What happens next? Who knows? Because on some level you have shed your skin and are starting all over again. When life brings us to this place, all of our relationships go through a transition. Who you are in relation to other p eop le will req uire them to make their own adjustments. hose who love you will realize that what you’ve gone through is calling them to kick themselves up a notch. Anyone who isn’t ready to take that leap will most likely fall off the wagon.
VIRGO: August 21 – Sept. 20 ou’re finally getting things sorted out. It’s taken forever to figure out why everything happened the way it did. In the course of cleaning out the cobwebs, you’ve made room for something new to replace that which didn’t serve you any longer. he best part of all of this is that you’re shooting more from the hip and living closer to the truth than ever before. At the moment, your life is a lot like a dam that’s ready to burst. All the goodness you’ve created is about to ow out and give life to things that will justify all of the intensity and hard knocks that it took to get here.
CAPRICORN: Dec. 21 – Jan. 20 ou and your partner don’t always see eye-to-eye. At this point, getting around that issue has you wondering what it signifies. If this isn’t about your partner, it involves someone else. Agreeing to disagree is always easier when we aren’t emotionally involved. Making adjustments in order to keep the peace and knowing enough to avoid discussions that showcase your differences will be part of the deal for a while. Keep in mind we are not what we think. At rock bottom, the ties that bind us are deeper and more visceral than that. Keep your heart focused where it counts.
GEMINI: May 21 – June 20 Certain things can’t be controlled. If your powers of manifestation are sharp as a tack, at times your motives are tainted by impatience and ambition. hings are working or not, depending on the extent to which you’ve learned to temper your power urges. he next six months will see you coming out on top or going down for the count — it’s showtime. With what seems to be everything at stake, you’re hung up wondering what’s missing. Let your internal Superman step out of the phone booth. Sail over the top and set yourself free.
LIBRA: Sept. 21 – Oct. 20 nce you stop looking for results, you’ll get where you need to go. he idea that something needs to happen, in a certain way at a certain time, makes you the biggest obstacle to your own success. So much of who you are is stuck on the idea that your master plan is the only possible approach, when in fact the way things turn out finds its own way, and has its own rhythm. It would be good to stop pushing long enough to bring the best possible outcome to bear on things that have either gone over the top, or that have been made too complicated by previous mistakes in judgment.
AQUARIUS: Jan. 21 – Feb. 20 ou could be changing your mind (and your tune) about more than a few things. umping prematurely into actions that had more to do with what you thought was expected, than with anything that has to do with you, has landed you in a bit of a pickle. he need to make the best of it competes with the idea that it might be better to start ov er. I f the fact that you are overly invested in things that are no longer relevant is freaking you out, it’s time to face the music. ou don’t need to panic, but you might as well surrender to the idea that everything needs to shift.
CANCER: June 21 – July 20 ou’ve been on a high run, and it’s time for a break. As much as it’s good to keep busy, at this point you need to stop long enough to assess your options and see where things need to go from here. In the last few weeks, there have been random developments that look like they’re going to turn out way better than you expected. What seems to be happening is, after a long period of biding your time, the fruits of your labors and the byproducts of your best intentions are being magnified in ways that make the saying “What goes around comes around” work out in your favor.
SCORPIO: Oct. 21 – Nov. 20 ou like yourself better when you have it all figured out. our ego is happier when you can show up with bells on. Lately, things have been a little gnarly. lies in the ointment and feelings that keep leaking through the cracks make you want to run and hide. rankly, I like you better when you’re a mess. Why? Because that’s when the truth comes out, and the veneer that you polish to preserve your sense of significance gives way to your authenticity. Aside from that, it isn’t when we’re neat and tidy that we’re growing our best work gets done when we’re falling apart.
PISCES: Feb. 21 – March 20 If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Between tussles with red tape and the small minds of petty o cials, these nuisances have added weight to what is already a pain in the neck. ry not to be incensed by the pettiness, deal with the BS, lighten up, laugh at it, and keep moving forward. Keep in mind that what appears to get in the way serves a purpose that is never immediately apparent. our relationship situation could use a transfusion. Before anything can change in that department, you’re going to have to reckon with the fact that your truer emotions need more airtime.
Welp. Another stay-at-home extension. Here’s a joke: “A robot walks into a bar. It sits down, orders a drink from the bartender and lays down a bill. Bartender says, “Hey, we don’t serve robots!” And the robot replies with a smirk, “no, but someday you will.” WE HOPE YOU HAD A SAFE AND JOYFUL MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND! CHEERS!
Wednesday, May 27th Happy Birthday, Zach Massad! Thursday, May 28th Happy Birthday, Matt Walker! Friday, May 29th HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIE FLYNN! Happy Birthday, Even Hutchins! Saturday, May 30th Happy Birthday, Eddy T! Happy Birthday, Sean Templeton! Sunday, May 31st Happy Birthday, Joanna Maslach!
metrotimes.com | May 27-June 2, 2020
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Plant Controller-N.A., Brose North America, Auburn Hills, MI. Analyze &evaluate rate of return, depreciation, working capital, investment, expense performance (costs) &profitability trends of 10 mechatronics syss mfg plants in U.S./CAN/MEX to identify potential financial &operational risks along w/ cost optimization strategies, &countermeasures. Ensure financial data reliability, consolidate, &analyze EBIT, cash flow swings, cost measures calculations, financial KPIs, &financial reporting w/ regard to sales, purchasing, production, logistics, G&A &qlty orgs. Consolidate plant income statements into NAFTA regional income statement according to internal corporate &IFRS standards. Conduct production anlys using SAP FI-CO &MM modules for high volume manufacture of mechatronic syss incldg door syss (door modules, latch syss, window regulators, &power liftgates), seat syss (front, rear, &preproduction), &drives (CFMs, Drivetrain Actuators, electric Oil Pumps, HVAC motors &EPS motors), for psgr vehicles. Bachelor, Finance, Financial Administration, Economics, or Accntng. 12 mos exp as Controller or Plant Controller, analyzing &evaluating rate of return, depreciation, working capital, investment, expense performance (costs) &profitability trends of mfg plant, &identify financial &operational risks along w/ cost optimization strategies, &countermeasures, &conduct production anlys using SAP FI-CO &MM modules for manufacture of mechatronic syss for psgr vehicles, or related. Mail resume to Ref#4191, Brose, Human Resources, 3933 Automation Ave, Auburn Hills, MI 48326.
Project Engineer, Brose North America, Auburn Hills, MI. Evaluate &review nonlinear FEA structural, injection molding, &stamping results to evaluate design feasibility, engr, &assure timely dvlpmt, launch &series production of mechatronic door syss incldg stamped aluminum &steel window regulators (WR), door modules, latch mini modules, &cmpnts incldg injection molded housings &carrier plates for OEM psgr vehicles, using CATIA V5, SAP PEPSI &SAP GECOS tools. Test &validate mechatronic subsys cmpnts incldg WR, Handsfree Access syss, &door modules, for psgr vehicle access &security exterior syss for serial mfg programs for OEM psgr vehicle specs incldg functional safety. Enhance closure syss security &comfort, &review slam analyses, silent opening &closing data, &implement technology dvlpmts for crash protection. Perform FMEA &experiments to test &validate door syss qulty &performance based on statistical field (warranty) data incldg cable despooling &abusive glass install. Master, Mechanical, Mechatronics, or Automotive Engrg. 24 mos exp as Engineer, performing or reviewing FEA of psgr vehicle injection molded cmpnts &related structures. Mail resume to Ref#39180-35102, Brose, Human Resources, 3933 Automation Ave, Auburn Hills, MI 48326.
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CULTURE
By D an S avage
Q:
I don’t want to become one of those p eop le who write to you comp laining about how I married someone I wasn’t sex ually comp atible with 10 years ago and now my sex life still sucks. I already know I need to break up with my boyfriend, and I was about to do it when he got sick with the u. his was at the beginning of March. I assumed he’d be sick for a week and then we would hav e an unp leasant conv ersation. But then the entire country shut down and my boyfriend was o cially diagnosed with C O V I D -19. S o I hav en’t seen him since the last weekend in F ebruary — Monday is Memorial D ay, D an, in case you’v e lost all concep t of time — and I ’v e been p laying the role of the sup p ortiv e and worried girlfriend from afar. But it’s been hard. Both my p arents are in highrisk group s, and my mental health has been battered. My boyfriend is finally getting better, and I don’t know what to do when I finally have to see him again. I ’m not breaking up with him because he’s a bad p erson, and I don’t want to hurt him but that’s ex actly what’s going to hap p en. I feel guilty because I ’m choosing my hap p iness ov er his. I know I shouldn’t, D an, but I do. — F eeling R esentful A bout U ncoup ling D ilemma
A: P
andemic or no p andemic, F R A U D , you can’t stay with someone forev er — you can’t be miserable for the rest of your life — to sp are that p erson the routine and surmountable p ain of getting dump ed. N ot breaking up with your boyfriend while he was fighting C O V I D -19 was the right thing to do, of course, and I don’t for a minute q uestion the sincerity of your concern for him. ( Y ou want to see the relationship end, F R A U D , not him. ) But don’t wait until you see him again to break up with him. I t’ll suck for him, of course, but the world is full of p eop le who got dump ed and got ov er it. A nd the sooner he gets ov er you, the sooner he’ll meet someone else. F or all you know, he’s been chatting ov er his backyard fence — at a safe distance — with a neighbor he would be interested in dating if he were single.
Q:
F or the p ast few months, my GF and I hav e been q uarantined together. E x cep t for the time we’v e sp ent working, we’re constantly in each other’s comp any and doing things together. I t’s been great so far. I t’s good to know that we won’t get tired of each other or feel smothered. he main problem is finding something to watch or something to do. A ny suggestions? — Q uarantined U ntil
start ex p loring your gender p resentation. he choice seems obvious to me.
Q:
Got in an argument recently about pegging and its original definition: “a women fucking a man in the ass with strap -on dildo. ” I feel it’s mov ed beyond that and now means anyone wearing a strap -on fucking anyone else in the ass. My friends insisted that only a man can be p egged, and only by a woman. A s the originator of the term, D an, we turn to you: C an a woman p eg another woman? — A N ew A ss Licker
A: I
will allow it.
Q:
JOE NEWTON
A : I ’v e been reading The Mirror
and the Light, the final installment of H ilary Mantel’s ep ic account of the inner life of homas Cromwell, Henry V I I I ’s most p owerful minister — the guy who arranged for the beheading of A nne Boleyn — while listening to whatev er classical music my husband p uts on. But j ust so you don’t think it’s all award-winning fiction and high art where we’re q uarantining, we’v e also been watching 9 0 D ay Fiancé , which is a comp lete ( and comp letely engrossing) shit show, and The S imple Life with P aris H ilton and N icole Richie, which I missed when it first ran. S o obv iously I would suggest fiction, music, and crap television — and anal, of course.
Q:
My p roblem is that I am seriously worried about missing out on life. I’m a man. I find men attractive, but I hav e no idea how to get to know one. or the first time last summer, I met someone and we were sex ual with each other. H e was a hockey p layer. But he is gone now. A nd when I try to be friendly with other men, I get called out for irting. I am gay and don’t know how much hurt I can take. —Making All hese Connections H ard
A : More than 80%
of gay relationship s got their start online before the pandemic began, MA CH, and that number is surely higher now. S o if you got on gay dating/ hookup ap p s instead of irting with random men, you would be talking to a self-selected group of men who are inv iting other men to irt with them. ou’ll still face rej ection, of course, and
you’ll still get hurt. o live is to suffer, as some p hilosop her or other once said, but the suffering is easier to bear if you’re getting your dick sucked once in a while.
Q:
I ’m 3 4, non-binary but p resenting female. D ue to a series of p ersonal tragedies ( death, dep ortation, illness — it was not a top 10 year) , I ’m sheltering with my p arents. Long story short, I’m 00 financially dependent on my parents right now. he upside is, I ’v e had a lot of time to become comfortable with the fact that I really, really want to mess around with cross-dressing. I would lov e to get a binder and a masc getup and haircut and j ust see how that feels. My p arents will want to know “what this means,” and they won’t take “fuck if I know” for an answer. I t will be a long time ( maybe years) before I ’m either eligible for disability or ready to work again, and I j ust can’t wait that long. S o much of my life has already p assed me by and I ’m tired of waiting for a “right time. ” But binders and clothes and haircuts cost money. K eep ing masc stuff around the house means p eop le will ev entually see it. A gain, they’d p robably be sup p ortiv e, but I j ust want to keep this p riv ate. I s there a way to do it? —Hoping or A hird ption
A: O
ther than winning the lottery and mov ing out on your own tomorrow, H A , there’s no third option here. Y ou’re going to hav e to p ick your p oison: risk hav ing an awkward conv ersation with p arents who are likely to be sup p ortiv e or continue to wait — p ossibly for years — before you
A re some p eop le j ust bad at sex ? My p artner has been ov erwhelmed with work, and our sex life suffered a major decline. He’s working with a p sychotherap ist who told him that some p eop le are j ust not good at sex , and he should j ust accep t that he’s one of those p eop le. I t broke my heart to know someone said that to my p artner. A m I ov erreacting? I s there some way to take this as anything but wrong? O r is this therap ist a clown? — C omp letely U ndermining N egative herapy
A:
here are people out there who are “bad at sex ” by obj ectiv e measures. here has to be. But “good sex” is so subj ectiv e that I ’m not conv inced obj ectiv e measures really matter. F or ex amp le, I got a letter yesterday from someone comp laining their p artner is “bad at sex ” because they j ust lie there, silent and inert, while the letter writer “does all the work. ” But if the p erson who j ust lies there was p artnered with a necrop hiliac, well, that “silent and inert” stuff would make them great at sex , not bad at sex , at least by a necrop hiliac’s standards. A s for your boyfriend, C N , you’re in a better p osition to j udge whether he’s good at sex — by your subj ectiv e standards — than his shrink. P resumably. A nd if you enj oyed the sex you were hav ing before your p artner was ov erwhelmed with work, then he’s good at sex — he’s good sex by your standards — and here’s hop ing you get back to hav ing lots of good sex together soon. J oin u s for the S avage Lovecast Livestream at 7 : 0 0 p.m. P D T, J u ne 4 . S end you r q u estions to livestream@ savagelovecast.com and I might answ er you rs on the show . Tickets are at S avageLovecast.com/ events..
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