Ex-Trump FDA Chief Politely Rips Hydroxychloroquine News: ‘Doesn’t Seem Like it’s Working’ and Trump Shouldn’t Need It

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tried to be kind about the news that President Donald Trump has been taking unproven coronavirus drug hydroxychloroquine, but couldn’t avoid trashing the drug and saying Trump shouldn’t need to take it anyway.

Gottlieb, a Trump appointee who resigned from the FDA last spring to return to the private sector, made several appearances on CNBC Monday, where he was asked to comment on the news that Trump claims he has been taking the drug for over a week now as a preventative measure against Covid-19 infection.

During one such appearance, Gottlieb gave the network’s Joe Kernen a few good reasons why Trump shouldn’t be taking the drug, although he omitted a pretty big one.

“Is there a reason to think it could be preventative, do you think it’s, that when the president says something like that, you have to offset whether it could help someone with, whether it’s going to be used in the wrong way where it could result in a harm or death to someone that shouldn’t be taking it?” Kernen asked Gottlieb.

Gottlieb told Kernen, “Well you’re right, initially a lot of doctors were taking it prophylactically, especially in Europe,” and that “a lot of doctors were prescribing it for patients off label.”

“I think they’ve pulled back, based on what I’m being told, because a lot of the subsequent data hasn’t been encouraging,” he continued. “There was a big study in Columbia Presbyterian, two studies published in a British medical journal last week, there was the VA study, all showing results that didn’t demonstrate a treatment effect.”

“And we want this to work, but it doesn’t seem like it’s working, at least in the studies that we have right now,” Gottlieb added. “There’s a big European study where they took an interim look and they allowed that study to continue to go on, so we know at least it wasn’t hurting people.”

Gottlieb failed to mention that other studies have shown harmful effects and even deaths associated with the treatment

He also told Kernen that because Trump is tested so regularly and protected from exposure, “I would hope that even if there was a drug that could provide some prophylactic value, some preventative value, the president himself wouldn’t need to use it because he’d be in a bubble, we’d be able to protect him.”

Gottlieb added, “Obviously he made an independent decision with his physician about what to do, I just hope that they are protecting him very well in terms of his exposure to this virus, that people who are potentially infected aren’t coming into contact with him.”

Watch the clip above via CNBC.

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