An offhand statement this past summer by President Trump, touting the potential efficacy of hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19, transformed America’s medical establishment into a militantly partisan, and anti-scientific movement. The proper response at the time would have been to say studies are ongoing, the president’s opinions are welcome, and we don’t know yet, but we’ll let you know what the science says in due course.
None of us remembers it that way. From Dr. Fauci within the government to Dr. Gupta within our televisions, a unanimous anti-hydroxychloroquine furor arose, and continued without interruption. Now, over six months later, studies are coming in that in fact confirm the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine when used early in the course of the disease, and in conjunction with zinc or, a bit surprisingly, the anti-lice medication Ivermectin.
In Othello, Shakespeare used Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, to get inside the skin of these thin-skinned, politicized physicians who foreswore their Hippocratic oath to “First, do no harm” in their rush to score partisan points. How many thousands of Americans died because our doctors were urged to avoid this medication, even is it was being broadly adopted in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Brabantio learns at the start of the play that Othello, a Moor from North Africa who leads Venice’s military, has eloped with Desdemona. Brabantio thinks President Trump is offering false medicines to COVID patients, that is, Othello is using potions to captivate his daughter:
Brabantio: “…Judge me the world, if ’tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weaken motion: I’ll have’t disputed on;
‘Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
Lay hold upon him: if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.”
Well, after President Trump leaves office, a pack of prosecutors will indeed lay hold upon him, to discourage others from making the heroic sacrifice he has made, in service to the return of government of, by, and for the people.
While elderly COVID sufferers face a truly nasty physical malady, at this point it has become clear that the political left is suffering from a psychological ailment. They’re allergic to conservatives, and they believe they won’t feel healthy and vibrant and alive again so long as we live among them. Shakespeare looked at that idea in The Winter’s Tale, where Camillo, who is an advisor to the king, says this:
Camillo: “There is a sickness
Which puts some of us in distemper, but
I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
Of you that yet are well.”
Once once our leftist neighbors have become distempered, is there any hope for their recovery? Well, Macbeth is our go-to guy for that question, as he questions a physician who has been ministering to his wife, Lady Macbeth:
Macbeth: “Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?”
We’ll see in due course. And all because President Trump, like Friar Laurence in Romeo & Juliet, made a simple, and now confirmed observation about everyday medicines already in general use (mickle means much or great):
Friar Laurence: “O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give.”
This season’s blog posts reflect the discouraging events now occurring in our public life. But I hope that, especially in times like these, the classics, and Shakespeare chief among them, can keep us connected to the highest and best in Western culture, even as we navigate the remnants of our fallen republic, and gather the strength to reclaim it.
