President Donald Trump remains obsessed with promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus, but even his own CIA has warned employees against taking it.
Trump, who may have financial ties to companies that produce the anti-malarial drug, has been insisting that it can “cure” the virus as over half a million Americans have been infected and more than 24,000 have died.
His claims have been parroted on Fox News and by his Republican allies. The problem is that chloroquine can be dangerous and some people have already died because they took it on Trump’s advice.
The FDA has already fact-checked Trump’s claims about the drug, as has a leading Mayo Clinic physician who warned that the drug can cause heart failure and went on to say that he refuses to prescribe it, especially since early studies are not promising.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
National Institutes of Health infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has also expressed doubts about the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.
“The data are really just, at best, suggestive,” Fauci said. “There have been cases that show there may be an effect, and there are others to show there’s no effect. So I think, in terms of science, I don’t think we could definitively say it works.”
As further proof that Americans should not listen to Trump, even the CIA has warned their employees against taking it.
That’s right, the intelligence agency infamous for conducting experiments with drugs on humans won’t subject their own employees to the drug Trump is touting.
“At this point, the drug is not recommended to be used by patients except by medical professionals prescribing it as part of ongoing investigational studies,” the CIA warned, according to the Washington Post. “There are potentially significant side effects, including sudden cardiac death, associated with hydroxychloroquine — and its individual use in patients needs to be carefully selected and monitored by a health care professional. Please do not obtain this medication on your own.”
That should be enough for Americans to reject Trump’s promotion of the drug once and for all.
Featured image via screen capture
Like what you see here? Join the discussion on Facebook over at Americans For Sanity!
