Trump’s Former Favorite Coronavirus Drug Gets Torpedoed in Two New Studies

Gerard Julien/AFP via Getty Images

Hydroxychloroquine, a drug President Donald Trump had lauded as a potential cure to Covid-19 since March, was ripped by two separate studies Friday which found there was “no benefit” for people who are fighting coronavirus.

In the first study, researchers in France monitored 181 Covid-19 patients and found no differences in those who took it and didn’t. A second study conducted in China split 150 coronavirus patients in two groups and found adverse reactions to the drug were more common after four weeks than helpful.

Hydroxychloroquine first garnered attention when Elon Musk tweeted about it on March 16. Trump first mentioned the drug on April 5 and asked, “What do you have to lose? What do I know? I’m not a doctor. I’m not a doctor. But I have common sense.” A day later, it was revealed Fox News’ Laura Ingraham met with the President with her “medical cabinet” to promote the unproved drug.

Dr. Rick Bright, who filed an official whistleblower complaint and testified Thursday, claimed he was booted from his job for questioning hydroxychloroquine. Many cable news hosts fought against the usage of the drug from Rachel Maddow to Jake Tapper to Chuck Todd.

On April 24, the FDA warned against the usage of hydroxychloroquine after people reported problems taking it and Trump has since backed off on bringing up the drug during his press briefings.

The last time Trump was asked about hydroxychloroquine was April 23 in a press briefing, where he responded, “We’ve had a lot of very good results and we had some results that perhaps aren’t so good. I don’t know. I just read about one, but I also read many times good. So I haven’t at all. And it’s a — it’s a great — for malaria, for lupus, for other things. And we’ll see what it is.”