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Donald Trump has revealed he is taking hydroxychloroquine to protect against coronavirus, an anti-malaria treatment the Food and Drug Administration has warned against on the grounds that it can cause fatal heart conditions in some cases.
The president was roundly criticised over the admission, with House speaker Nancy Pelosi warning that it places morbidly obese people like Trump in particular danger and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer branding him reckless, reckless, reckless.
Trump has also provoked controversy by lashing out at Fox News and praising its late great CEO Roger Ailes, despite his being accused of serial sexual harassment, and threatening to permanently withhold US funding from the World Health Organisation.
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  • Trump reveals he’s taking unproven hydroxychloroquine to fend off coronavirus
  • Pelosi warns ‘morbidly obese’ president putting himself at risk
  • Trump praises late Fox CEO accused of serial sexual harassment
  • President writes to WHO threatening to permanently freeze funding
  • Republican senators demand answers over sacking of State Dept IG

Show latest update
2020-05-19T08:55:00.000Z
Trump reveals he’s taking unproven hydroxychloroquine to fend off coronavirus
Donald Trump has revealed he is taking hydroxychloroquine to protect against coronavirus, an anti-malaria treatment the Food and Drug Administration has warned against on the grounds that it can cause fatal heart conditions in some cases.
The president told reporters at the White House on Monday he has been taking the drug and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.” 
I take it, he told reporters. All I can tell you is, so far, I feel okay.
Trump spent weeks pushing the drug as a potential cure for Covid-19 against the cautionary advice of many of his administration’s top medical professionals. The drug has the potential to cause significant side effects in some patients and has not been shown to combat the new coronavirus.
Trump said his doctor did not recommend the drug to him but he requested it from the White House physician.
Trump and his right-wing media allies like Laura Ingraham have repeatedly pushed hydroxychloroquine with or without the antibiotic azithromycin but no large, rigorous studies have found them safe or effective for preventing or treating Covid-19. They can cause heart rhythm problems and other side effects.
Two large observational studies, each involving around 1,400 patients in New York, recently found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine. Two new ones published on Thursday in The British Medical Journal the same conclusion.
Heres John T Bennetts report.

  • Joe Sommerlad
  • 19 May 2020 09:51

2020-05-19T08:40:00.000Z
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US and the Donald Trump administration’s response to it.

  • Joe Sommerlad
  • 19 May 2020 09:41