State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who learned Monday she has tested positive for COVID-19, said she started taking hydroxychloroquine on March 31, prescribed by her doctor, after both she and her husband sought treatment for a range of symptoms on March 18.
“It was less than two hours” before she started to feel relief, said Whitsett, who had experienced shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes, and what felt like a sinus infection. She is still experiencing headaches, she said.
Whitsett said she was familiar with “the wonders” of hydroxychloroquine from an earlier bout with Lyme disease, but does not believe she would have thought to ask for it, or her doctor would have prescribed it, had Trump not been touting it as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
Whitsett said Trump’s comments helped in her case.
“It has a lot to do with the president … bringing it up,” Whitsett said. “He is the only person who has the power to make it a priority.”
This is an excerpt from the Detroit Free Press.
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State Rep. Karen Whitsett, the second Michigan lawmaker from Detroit to test positive for COVID-19, is urging people to take the virus more seriously and is crediting hydroxychloroquine for helping save her life.
On Tuesday, her doctor prescribed her hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that’s being studied as a potential treatment for COVID-19, Whitsett said.
“It was a choice between going to the hospital and never coming out and getting my hands on that medication,” she said, adding that “It literally saved my life.”
Henry Ford Health System is conducting a large-scale study to find out if the drug can prevent COVID-19.
House Democrats revealed in a Monday statement that Whitsett, a first-term Democratic lawmaker, had tested positive for the virus.
This is an excerpt from the Detroit News.
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