Don’t take Trump ‘anti-virus’ pills, Britons warned
President ridiculed over malaria drug
Britons were last night warned against taking an antimalarial drug being used by Donald trump.
The President stunned the Us and drew global ridicule yesterday with his admission that he is on hydroxychloroquine pills.
He has been pushing them as a potential cure even though health experts say there is no evidence they work. there are also potentially fatal side effects.
The risk to Mr Trump is all the greater because he is 73 and weighs 17 stone.
Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in Congress, said: ‘He’s our President and i would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists. Especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group, what is morbidly obese, they say. so, i think that it’s not a good idea.’
Asked to comment yesterday, a Downing street spokesman said hydroxychloroquine was ‘not something which our own medical experts are recommending’.
The revelation came during a meeting between Mr trump and retail executives.
He said: ‘You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the front-line workers. A couple of weeks ago, i started taking it ... because i think it’s good. i’ve heard a lot of good stories.
‘And if it’s not good, i’ll tell you right – you know, i’m not going to get hurt by it’.
Mr trump said he had consulted White House doctor sean Conley about hydroxychloroquine.
Dr Conley later said he and Mr trump ‘concluded the potential benefit outweighed the relative risks’. His taking the drug coincides with two White House staffers contracting coronavirus. the surge in interest in hydroxychloroquine caused by Mr trump’s claims has sparked shortages.
Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the school of medicine at Leeds University, said it was a ‘staggering, irresponsible act that could very well also amount to self-harm’ and ‘influence his supporters and perhaps the wider Us or world population’. Hu Xijin, editor of China’s Global times newspaper, said Mr trump was dealing in ‘witchcraft’.
The US Food and Drug Administration says there is a ‘risk of heart rhythm problems’ from hydroxychloroquine.
The President has already shocked scientists by claiming that sunlight or injecting yourself with bleach could cure coronavirus.
■ Mr Trump yesterday threatened to permanently pull Washington’s £368million annual funding from the World Health organisation. in his latest attack on the body, the President claimed the Un agency was ‘wrong so much’ on the coronavirus and ‘always on the side of China’. He said it had to make substantive improvements within 30 days.
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