In keeping with his habit of misinforming the American public at every opportunity, Trump made an erroneous claim regarding a possible medication for the treatment of coronavirus that resulted in an almost instant, likely embarrassing fact check from the FDA.
During his daily press briefing that’s honestly little more than an incoherent rant to begin with, Donald declared that the experimental malaria drug chloroquine has gotten approval as a COVID-19 treatment with a prescription from a doctor.
However, according to a report from Bloomberg, it doesn’t appear as though his claim is true.
“It’s been around for a long time, so we know that if things don’t go as planned it’s not going to kill anybody,” Trump declared during his briefing this afternoon.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
But literally moments later, FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn was seemingly forced to issue a statement fact-checking the president and clarifying the advancements surrounding the drug and the coronavirus, explaining that chloroquine would be tested in clinical trials on COVID-19 patients to determine safe and effective doses.
“We want to do that in a setting of a clinical trial,” Hahn explained to reporters in the wake of Trump’s inaccurate declaration.
It is true that French researchers found what could be a promising path to COVID-19 treatment when they administered a combination of hydroxychloroquine, a popular drug used to treat malaria, and the antibiotic azithromycin to 30 confirmed coronavirus patients and saw a reduced duration of the virus.
Trump also claimed that the experimental drug remdesivir was “essentially approved” but Hahn clarified shortly after that the FDA still has a responsibility to verify the safety and effectiveness of these drug treatments.
While the FDA has loosened its grip on some of their regulations amid the worldwide pandemic, such as allowing states to regulate virus tests in an effort to roll them out more quickly and effectively, it is still the entity’s job to ensure that treatments won’t, you know, kill you.
It’s just sad that they have to fact-check the president to do so.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
Like what you see here? Join the discussion on Facebook over at Americans For Sanity!
