Trump says he finished hydroxychloroquine regimen
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said he finished taking his regimen of hydroxychloroquine, a controversial drug he has promoted as a treatment for the coronavirus despite warnings from his own U.S. Food and Drug Administration and medical professionals about its effectiveness and potentially dangerous side effects.
“Finished, just finished,” Trump said in an interview with Sinclair Broadcast’s program “Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson,” which aired Sunday. “And by the way, I’m still here.”
The president has promoted hydroxychloroquine, an FDA-approved drug used to treat malaria as well as autoimmune conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as a “game-changer.” There is little evidence that hydroxychloroquine has been effective to treat or prevent COVID-19.
The FDA cautioned against the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, a related drug, for COVID-19 treatment outside of hospitals or clinical trials because of the risk of life-threatening heart problems.
Trump’s comments came as a new study showed COVID-19 patients who took hydroxychloroquine had a higher risk of death than those who did not. The study, published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet, also found that COVID-19 patients were more likely to develop serious heart arrhythmias if treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, cited the FDA warning about the use of the drug to treat COVID-19 when asked about the Lancet study.
“I think the FDA has been very clear on their website about their concerns about hydroxychloroquine, particularly when it’s combined with a macrolide,” Birx said, referring to a class of antibiotics such as azithromycin – a course of treatment similar to the one the president was taking.
Trump continued to defend the use of the drug on Sunday, telling Attkisson hydroxychloroquine had “rave reviews” and “many people think it saved their lives.”
“I believe in it enough that I took a program because I had two people in the White House that tested positive,” he said. “But hydroxy has had tremendous, if you look at it, tremendous, rave reviews.”
Trump revealed last week that he had been taking the drug daily along with zinc and an initial dose of azithromycin as an added measure to avoid contracting the coronavirus. His revelation came after two aides tested positive for COVID-19 and three members of the coronavirus task force entered quarantine over concerns that they attended meetings with one of the staff members diagnosed with the virus.