CHINESE WISEQUACK

Ridicule Don’s hydroxy treatment as medical ‘witchcraft’

A Chinese journalist with close ties to the ruling Communist Party mocked President Trump on Tuesday, charging that the commander in chief is using “witchcraft” against coronavirus because he’s taking hydroxychloroquine.

“President Trump is leading the US’s struggle against pandemic with witchcraft, and as a result, more than 90,000 people have died. If it were in China, the White House would have been burned down by angry people,” Hu Xijin, editor-inchief of the Chinese Communist Party’s official publication, Global Times, wrote in a since-deleted tweet, The Daily Mail reported. Hu — who is close with China’s leaders — made his comment after Trump said Monday that he takes the antimalarial drug as a preventative measure despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration that it could be dangerous.

A day later, the commander in chief doubled down on his decision when asked outside the Capitol about why he would tout the drug when he was not a doctor.

“Well, I have worked with doctors. If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, that [hydroxychloroquine was] being given to people in bad shape, they were very old, almost dead. It was a Trumpenemy statement,” he said, referring to a study of Veterans Health Administration data that said the drug was not effective for treating COVID-19 and might actually increase mortality.

“Now, if you look at some of the reports that came out from Italy, that came out from France, that came out from others, a lot of our frontline workers take it because it possibly [helps] — and I think it does, but people will have to make up their own mind,” the president continued.

Later, during a Cabinet meeting, Trump called the study based on the VA data “a phony study” and said “many, many doctors” thought it was a good idea.

“I think it’s worthwhile as a line