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April 2, 2020 - Rudy Giuliani
21:48
COVID-19 Patient Praises President Trump and Hydroxychloroquine Treatment | Part 2
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It's our purpose to bring to bear the principle of common sense and rational discussion to the issues of our day.
America was created at a time of great turmoil, tremendous disagreements, anger, hatred.
There was a book written in 1776 that guided much of the discipline of thinking that brought us to the discovery of our freedoms, of our God-given freedoms.
It was Thomas Paine's Common Sense, written in 1776, one of the first American bestsellers in which Thomas Paine explained by rational principles the reason why these small colonies felt the necessity to separate from the powerful Kingdom of England and the King of England.
He explained their inherent desire for liberty, freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and he explained it in ways that were understandable to the people, to all of the people.
A great deal of the reason for America's constant ability to self-improve is because we are able to reason, we're able to talk to each other, we're able to listen to each other, and we're able to analyze.
We are able to apply our God-given common sense.
So let's do it.
Welcome back!
We're now going to interview Rabbi Shalom Lipskar.
He is from the shul at Bowell Harbor in Florida, and Rabbi Lipskar Thank God is a survivor.
Rabbi Lipskar has gone through coronavirus.
He's gone through it in a pretty bad case of it.
And I'm going to have him describe, you know, what happened, what he thinks helped.
And also for those of you who are, and we all are, interested in what someone goes through, particularly at the bad end here, I think the Rabbi can be very, very informative and very helpful because this is a very thoughtful man who has thought out what needs to be done to protect people.
So Rabbi, it's great to see you.
It's great to see you looking well.
We talked a few days ago and you seem much weaker, so it seems to me that Day by day, you're getting stronger.
Is that true?
That is true.
One of the consequences of this monster flu, monster virus, is a tremendous weakening of the body in every way.
And I was totally without strength at all, and slowly my strength is coming back, both in the ability to communicate and even to move around a little bit.
But thank God I'm out of the hospital, out of the Prison that I was in and it's very interesting because I have a program that works with Jewish men and women and the general population in prison.
We work in 400 prisons with about 5,000 inmates.
And we've been doing that for the last 38 years, and inasmuch as I've been very sensitive to it and the program has been hailed by the governments and various environments as one of the best programs in the history, nonetheless, I only became extremely sensitive to it now that I was Oh, you mean you felt kind of the pressures of incarceration and what that means?
Oh my goodness, yes.
Totally. I felt like nobody could visit me. I couldn't be with my family. I was alone in a small room.
And I really started to feel what it means for a person to be in such a state of isolation.
So Rabbi, please tell me, first tell me a little about yourself.
How old are you?
Where do you live?
Your family?
Rabbi Lipskar, you live in Florida, right?
I live in Florida.
I'm 73 years old.
And you have a wife and children?
Yes.
I've got to have a wife and children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
And then how did this first come about?
Tell us when you first realized you were sick.
Well, you know, it was a low-grade fever.
How long ago?
About two weeks ago.
Okay, a low-grade fever.
Yes, and then the fever just didn't take it too seriously, but because I have some underlying preconditions that have to deal with my heart and diabetes, etc.
So I was a little bit more conscious, my doctors were more conscious, and my fear started to rise.
And I came, they sent me to get tested, which I tested.
And as soon as I found out that I was presumptive positive, they told me to go into the hospital where my fevers rose to a pretty high level.
So what hospital did you go to?
I went to University of Miami.
University of Miami Hospital.
Yes.
At that time, they had set up a floor.
Were they overcrowded then, or was it still at the fairly early stages?
It was not overcrowded at all.
People were just becoming aware of this monster that was coming on.
The communities were not yet in a state of isolation.
When did you first get treated with medicine?
I started getting treated with medicine the day after I was in the hospital.
You didn't get treatment before you went to the hospital?
No, I didn't.
I got some antibiotics.
I was on some antibiotics, but that was it.
So what was your treatment the day after you got into the hospital?
Well, at that time a dear friend of mine in New York, who was in contact with one of the foremost people in infectious disease, said that he thought that there were some studies indicating that this hydrochloric queen And a combination of that with a Z-Pak or other drugs was helpful.
And so my doctors at the U.M., who are also very high-level researchers in this field, they consulted and they felt that that was the case and there should be no downside.
And so I started taking the medication three days, actually, before the president started talking about it.
And it was a five-day regiment and thank God my fever broke.
My fever had been up to 103.5.
My fever broke and I was able, after a few, nine days actually in the hospital in quarantine, they sent me home, which I maintained this quarantine and isolation, but thank God it's getting stronger and better with no fevers.
And I believe strongly that that medication was effective in halting this virus in some fashion.
So, one day into the hospital, after talking to some... Were they doctors in New York?
Well, this friend of mine, he's very close to one of the top doctors in the world, Dr. Agus in California, and he had recommended this concoction of medications.
So this doctor recommended the hydroxy, the Z-Pak, Right, hydroxychloroquine.
And your doctors looked into it quickly, obviously, because it only took a day.
And they came to the conclusion that this would be safe.
Yes.
They probably couldn't conclude whether it would work or not because you didn't know whether it would work or not at this point, right?
Right, but they considered me safe and they had all kinds of precautions because after you take this medication it could affect the heart so they do an EKG three hours each time after they give you a dose and the dose is like five days, two doses per day.
And do you remember the milligrams?
It was, yes, 400 milligrams a day.
They gave you 400 milligrams of hydroxy twice a day?
Yes.
200 twice a day.
200 twice a day?
Yes.
200 milligrams of hydroxy twice a day for 400?
Yes.
And then the usual Z-Pak 2 and then 1, 2, 3, 4?
Yes.
And then the usual Z-Pak, two, and then one, two, three, four?
Yes.
Anything else?
That was basically it. And they also gave me some antibiotics to make sure there was no ancillary infection.
And that regimen was a five-day regimen?
Yes.
Have you since taken any of those pills?
No.
So after the five days, how did you feel?
Thank God.
I feel much better, though still very weak, because that's the nature of this illness.
You know, it takes time for the strength to come back.
And basically, most of the day I'm resting here at home, in quarantine myself, together with my wife.
And in fact, when anybody comes to visit me, they're at the other end of my yard here.
After the five days, you actually felt better, not cured, but you felt better?
Yes.
And then how soon after that?
As soon as the fever broke, you start feeling better because you don't have that flu symptom, which is a very, very strong flu.
It's like, as I said, it's like flu on steroids.
So what was it like in that first four or five days before the fever broke?
How bad was it?
It was just, as I said, it was like a flu on steroids.
So it was, it was, it was, people would have to look forward to a terrible situation.
Well, yes.
Well, it was actually very uncomfortable.
You're, you're chilled, your body's chilled, you sweat, you look forward to getting the next dose of Tylenol, which they were giving me IV.
Did Tylenol help, by the way?
It did help, but very temporarily, you know, every six hours, Steve just came back again.
So, but it was a temporary help that removed that chill, the body chill and the body aches, shakes, as you have when you have a flu, a strong flu.
But eventually the fever broke, and thank God I haven't had fever since.
And again, though I'm still feeling extremely weak, but at the same time, I'm, thank God, on the mend, like they say.
So the fever broke after how many days on the hydroxy?
Five days.
So on the fifth day the fever broke?
Yes.
And since then, Things improve pretty much every day?
Yes.
I mean, they improve to the extent where you just start feeling a little stronger at the beginning.
You can hardly get out of bed.
You cannot move out of bed.
So how long were we in the hospital altogether, doctor?
Nine days.
Nine days.
And then you came home still feeling pretty weak.
But each day, I mean, I can just tell from talking to you two, three days ago, last night and today, you seem stronger today than you were three days ago.
I do, I feel stronger.
And I just have to mention, I know this is not relevant to my own personal experience, but it did affect me.
You know, I hear all these conversations and just watching the programs on television and talking about the talking heads and the experts.
You know, I feel I know as much about the illness as the doctors do, because we're all like blind men leading the blind.
Yes, that's true.
In a certain way, but at the same time it's so interesting to me that on certain areas that's been a little politicized and I personally feel so much better having at the helm President Trump, who, without dealing with the politics, whether you like all of his politics and all of his ideas and so forth, but I really feel that there's real leadership taking charge here.
I feel that there is someone at the helm that's driving the rudder in a very positive way.
And when you have all these little nitpicking things of why something's happening and asking people to make predictions and so forth, I believe that it's very encouraging and making you feel a little bit stronger and better knowing that there's someone at the helm that's really
Taking this position in a way that I feel that he requires a real shout out.
And it's for someone who is in the midst of this illness and suffering from this illness.
I really felt very positive.
In hearing his daily discussions and his optimism, and even though people are complaining, how can you be optimistic?
He was realistic at the same time, but it made me personally feel better as a patient going through this and having that kind of an attitude of a leader taking charge at that time.
Well, doctor, I agree with you.
I think this has been extraordinary leadership by the president for something that he, you, I had no awareness of four months ago.
This is a, this is, it's called a, you know, a novel coronavirus for a reason because it's new and everybody is somewhat hopefully making intelligent guesses.
And I do, it sounds like the hydroxy and the And the ZPAC for you was a very good thing.
It was.
That's something that I don't think would be being considered nationwide if it weren't for the president having the courage to come forward and say this, even though he knew he was going to be criticized by a lot of the more narrow-minded people.
I believe that the fact that he is basically, his background is not politics, but business in a certain way, and a professional in a certain way, gives him that courage to take positions that are, you might say, out of the box and moving forward.
And it's very interesting that I believe in my own lifetime, and I'm sure in yours as well, this is the first time that the entire world, everybody's on the same page.
Everybody's concerned with the same issues.
You know, all of a sudden, all the petty matters that people generally deal with, they've become secondary.
You know, nobody's thinking about those because it's touching everyone's homes right there in our center.
And it's under these circumstances that we recognize the power of Almighty God and the fact that we have to believe that there's a conductor, architect, Thank you very much, Rabbi.
That's absolutely beautiful.
When do you think you will be able to go out and get about and do the things that you were doing before?
Well, I believe that right now, because of the uncertainty, they're not sure if you have the antibodies that reject this infection, this virus.
So they're being a little bit careful to make sure that you don't get reinfected.
Of course!
So do they give you any prognosis on when you can go back to being in more normal communication with people and going out and doing things?
Well, even though I myself may have created the antibodies, and that'd be a little bit safer, but because I'm the head of this community here, I don't want people to feel that they should take a lackadaisical attitude towards it, and so I'll probably stay quarantined and isolated for as long as the community is.
And may I ask what you and the community are going to do about the High Holy Days?
Well, right now we're not planning that much in advance.
We're taking it one day at a time.
All of our programs are online.
We have multiple classes going on all the time.
We have our staff and volunteers who've called every member of our community to find out if they I know that community somewhat, and I know how wonderful it is.
But Rabbi, I'm going to just ask you, I'm going to finish with a somewhat theological, philosophical question, which is, doesn't this seem like this will be a very, very poignant and very appropriate celebration of the Passover?
Given what's going on, because I get a feeling with all the people locked in and all the people worried about, you could think of it as the angel of death, right?
Coming to them and hoping that it passes over them and praying to God.
In a certain way, it's a very similar kind of experience.
You're absolutely correct.
In fact, today is the first day of the month of Nisan, which is the month of redemption.
Today it's called Rosh Chodesh.
And in fact, the temple was dedicated beginning today and 14 days until the Passover holiday with all of its preparations.
And you're absolutely correct.
We're all of a sudden recognizing another level of freedom.
You know, that freedom is not necessarily Being behind bars, but freedoms can be freedom from our own limitations, from our own infringements, and recognizing that we can be in charge of ourselves in our own spaces.
And if you told somebody a while back that your kids are going to be home, you know, for the next indefinite period of time and not go to school, people would say that's crazy and it's never going to happen.
And at the same time, in the present time, we're starting to feel a little bit of personal freedom, a personal sense of purpose and meaning in life that transcends what we have been used to in this artificial kind of world that we've been living in.
I believe it's a very, very potent time for our introspection and recognition of what true freedom is.
Freedom from all kinds of infringements and limitations and the keeping up with the Joneses and all the materialism that has overwhelmed us.
That's beautiful.
It's a very positive experience and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share that with you.
Well, Rabbi, I'm going to check in with you, if you don't mind, on a fairly regular basis.
And when is Passover this year?
Passover is one week from last night.
So I'm going to call you back around Passover because I'm considering having my own Seder.
I may need some instructions.
I've been to many.
I've been to many.
You're going to have to get me one of those simple books.
I remember I've gone to very orthodox Seders, I've gone to conservative Seders, and I've gone to Seders that I don't think you would recognize as Seders.
But if you could get me one of those simple little books, I will be, not only will I get you one of those books, if you can tell me the address in which I can send it to you.
I will, I'm going to get it.
But I will also send you a short video of how to conduct a Seder.
Oh my goodness!
Well, I'm going to see if I can, you know, we'll do it under the most sanitary circumstances imaginable.
I'll find a few of my friends who are... Yeah, we're going to definitely do it, because I think this is the year in which everybody should celebrate a Seder.
I appreciate it.
God bless you.
God bless you.
Nice to talk to you.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Well, that was a very interesting conversation with an obviously very brilliant, very remarkable man.
You can see why he's so beloved by his congregation and why his congregation is so beloved in that part of Florida for doing good.
You know, you can't help thinking that God saved him for a purpose, and to communicate with people and to kind of give them hope in getting through this.
So I think that was very interesting, and we'll keep following up with the rabbi to see how he's doing.
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