By Jerry Bellune

jerrybellune@yahoo.com

Do you or someone you know have covid-19?

Has someone you care about died of the disease?

How would you feel if you found out a potential cure was tied up in government red tape?

A group of doctors believe some government bureaucrats are "interfering" with a potential cure.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has filed a lawsuit against the heads of the FDA, HHS and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Their lawsuit charges these agencies with what they call “irrational interference” to limit the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating covid-19 patients.

In a complaint filed in US District Court in Michigan, AAPS criticized the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization for the anti-malaria drug that limits its use to hospitalized covid-19 patients who can’t participate in trials.

They said the restriction lacks any legal or factual justification and was influenced by a politically biased official. They seek release of the drug without restrictions.

They claimd that Rick Bright, a government whistleblower, “distorted the agency process to arbitrarily and unjustifiably limit access by patients to hydroxychloroquine received as donations by the federal government” for distribution to the public.

“These arbitrary, irrational and unjustifiable limitations by the FDA prevents the use of HCQ as a prophylaxis in nursing homes and when in the best interests of nonhospitalized patients,” the association said.

It is seeking relief from the agencies it is suing.

The doctors allege that, while FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn claims the agency does not involve itself in physicians’ abilities to prescribe the medicine, it is blocking access to the 150 million-dose supply donated to the national stockpile.

“This irrational hoarding is an abuse of power,” the group says.

They claim that most of the doses have not been distributed and are approaching spoilage in higher summer heat.

The doctors say China, Costa Rica, India, South Korea, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, are using it for treatment and prevention.

Questionable trial data claims hydroxychloroquine is ineffective as a covid-19 treatment.

Last week, The Lancet retracted findings from a large, 96,032-patient study of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine after an inquiry into its data.

The study’s findings suggested that the drug increased the risk of death for covid-19 patients.

But the authors admitted that their data could not be trusted after their analytics company, Surgisphere, refused to provide full data.