Trump defends use of malaria drug amid criticism

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump defended himself Tuesday against criticism from medical experts that his announced use of a malaria drug against the coronavirus could spark wide misuse by Americans of the unproven treatment with potentially fatal side effects.

Trump’s revelation a day earlier that he was taking hydroxychloroquine caught many in his administration by surprise.

Trump asserted that a study of veterans raising alarm about the drug was “false” and an “enemy statement,” even as his own government warned that the drug should be administered for COVID-19 only in a hospital or research setting.

“If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape,” Trump said.

That was an apparent reference to a study of hundreds of patients treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs in which more of those in a group who were administered hydroxychloroquine died than among those who weren’t.

During a Cabinet meeting, Trump elicited a defense of his practice from other officials, including VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, who noted that the study in question was not conducted by his agency.

Trump said he decided to take hydroxychloroquine after two White House staffers tested positive for the disease.

“This is an individual decision to make,” Trump told reporters during a visit to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans. He later said, “It’s gotten a bad reputation only because I’m promoting it.”

Vice President Mike Pence told Fox on Tuesday that he was not taking the drug because his doctor did not recommend it, but said he “would never begrudge any American taking the advice of their physician.”