Trump Goes on Hydroxychloroquine Twitter Binge, Retweets Anti-Mask Conspiracies and False Claims That Drug Is ‘Cure’ for Covid-19
President Donald Trump went on a late night Twitter binge on Monday with more than a dozen posts pushing dubious claims about the drug hydroxychloroquine, including twice retweeting a video from a woman falsely claiming that the drug was a “cure” for Covid-19 and that “you don’t need a mask.”
The president has repeatedly touted the drug as an off-label therapeutic treatment for the coronavirus. But the FDA has stopped recommending emergency use of the drug out of safety concerns about harmful side effects. In May, the WHO stopped its hydroxychloroquine trial and, similarly, the NIH halted its clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine in June because it provided “no benefit” in the patients studied. Despite these results, Trump famously said he took the drug for two weeks to prevent getting the virus and he has occasionally circled back to his early cheerleading for the drug, which earned widespread criticism.
Two of Trump’s Monday night tweets focused on Stella Immanuel, who had appeared outside Capitol Hill on Friday with a several other doctors to make a series of outlandish claims while dismissing other “fake doctors” who doubt the efficacy of the drug as well as the idea of double blind clinical studies to scientifically test medical treatments.
The video of Immanuel racked up more than 14 million views on Monday, thanks in part to promotion from the far right site Breitbart News, which had broadcast a Periscope of the event where Immanuel spoke on its Twitter timeline. Hours later, both Facebook and YouTube began pulling down video of Immanuel’s claims, citing it for spreading misinformation about the pandemic. In addition, the social media giant told CNN’s Oliver Darcy it was actively trying to counter Immanuel’s baseless and dangerous claims: “We’re showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.”
Facebook says it has taken down the video, which was the #2 post on the site today and had racked up more than 13 million views.
A Facebook spox says, “We’ve removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.”
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 28, 2020
Facebook spox adds, “We’re showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.”
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 28, 2020
The reckless and irresponsible posts by Trump come exactly one week after the president tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask and the press hailed him as having adopted a new, more serious tone about handling the outbreak that has claimed nearly 150,000 American lives since February.
