Tuesday on ABC’s “The View,” co-host Joy Behar questioned if Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) had a “brain” when he said his doctor prescribed him hydroxychloroquine for his bout with the COVID-19 coronavirus.
“I thought at first I just had some strain of the flu,” Kelly said. “I didn’t really recognize it as something that I hadn’t had before. My wife though was very aware of it and said you know what, you’re sleeping with two blankets on, you’re still cold, you’re not eating, you have no sense of taste, and when you sleep you’re sleeping like 16 to 18 hours a day, and you’re still tired. Now, fortunately, I didn’t have the respiratory problem, but I got to my doctor in Butler here.”
“He very quickly got me tested,” he continued. “I went into the Butler hospital drive-through, got tested. Within 24 hours, they told me, listen, you have the virus, so what we want you to do is stay home, and we’ll prescribe stuff. So a Z-pak which most people use and then the hydroxychloroquine, I took it. So maybe that reduced the effects on me. I didn’t have the respiratory part, which is a real blessing.”
Behar replied, “Did you just say that you took the hydroxychloroquine? My sound is a little weird.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Kelly said. “Yes, I took it.”
“Wow, I can’t believe anybody with a brain would take that stuff, but you seem like an intelligent guy,” Behar said. “You’re a representative in Congress. Why would you take that drug? There are terrible consequences.”
“I appreciate that’s your view — that’s not my view, and we’re on ‘The View,'” Kelly said. “But let me say this to you. in my case, I can’t say definitively that’s what cured me, but I can say definitively that I took it and I can say that I went through a period of time that I was sick. I came out of it within about nine days, and then I self-quarantined for another month on top of that. So if you stay within the parameters of what’s the guidance and if you’re smart about what you do, you stay safe, you keep other people safe by staying away from them, I don’t think there’s anything stupid about that. I still think I’m a relatively pretty intelligent guy. But I don’t tell anybody there’s a one size fits all. I say go to the doctors that you have faith in, listen to what they say. If your doctor says don’t take it, then don’t take it. My doctor thought you know what, we have something that we think could possibly work and give it to you.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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