Donald Trump has revealed he is taking hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug he has pushed for weeks as a treatment for coronavirus – even though he has tested negative, and federal health agencies have warned of serious negative side effects for its use.
“I take it,” he told reporters. “All I can tell you is, so far, I feel okay.”
The president said on Monday he had taken only an initial dose. “It seems to have an impact,” he said. “Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t…..You’re not going to get sick and die.”
Mr Trump said he has taken the drug for “about a week and a half now”, adding: “I take a pill every day” and has had “zero symptoms”.
The president said he was taking the drug because “I’ve gotten a lot of calls” from medical professionals praising it. His revelation comes several weeks after the New York Times reported the Trump family has a financial tie to the parent company of one of the the firms that makes hydroxychloroquine.
“That was stunning.”
Fox News’ Neil Cavuto was so shocked by President Donald Trump announcing he’s taking hydroxychloroquine that he took a few minutes to explicitly warn viewers about the risks of taking it.
At one point the president asked “what have you got to lose,” but as Cavuto said, “A number of studies, those certainly vulnerable in the population have one thing to lose, their lives. A VA study showed that among a population of veterans in a hospital receiving this treatment, those with vulnerable conditions, respiratory conditions, heart elements, they died.”
Cavuto read from a number of other studies about the effects of hydroxychloroquine and said, “Those who took it, in a vulnerable population, including those with respiratory or other conditions, they died. I want to stress again — they died. If you are in a risky population here and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus or, in a worst-case scenario, you are dealing with the virus, and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you. I cannot stress that enough. This will kill you.”
“So again, whatever benefit the president says this has — and certainly has had for those suffering from malaria, dealing with lupus — this is a leap that should not be taken casually by those watching at home or assuming, ‘well, the President of the United States says it’s okay,’” Cavuto continued, bringing up the FDA’s own warning.