DOC’S DILEMMA

Hasidic NY Doctor Who Promoted Hydroxychloroquine Use Against Coronavirus Leaves Jewish Community

Community leaders had said Dr. Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko spread misinformation.

A controversial Hasidic doctor in New York who promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine as part of a drug cocktail to treat the coronavirus has left the Jewish community, the Forward reports. Dr. Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko, a longtime medical practitioner in Monroe, New York, whose work has gotten shout-outs on Fox News and who was reportedly in touch with the White House, said that hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and zinc sulfate, when taken together, would help treat the new coronavirus. He claimed that he had used the drugs to treat more than 300 patients. Community leaders had lambasted him, saying he spread misinformation, and a Baltimore federal prosecutor is investigating his claim that the drugs he promoted had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration. “It’s with a broken heart that I have to say this, but I have decided to leave Monroe after almost two decades of working as a doctor, taking care of the community, most recently with this terrible magefah [plague],” he reportedly wrote on Whatsapp to Hasidic groups.