Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease effort, said Wednesday that trials have shown “consistently” that hydroxychloroquine is “not effective” in treating coronavirus.
His comments come as President Donald Trump faces questions over his promotion of a now-deleted video in which one doctor claimed the drug was a “cure” for COVID-19.
Speaking with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, Fauci said the data doesn’t support the claim.
“The scientific data, the cumulative data on trials, clinical trials that were valid — namely, clinical trials that were randomized and controlled in the proper way — all of those trials show consistently that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in the treatment of coronavirus disease or COVID-19,” he said.
Describing the video Trump promoted as “a bunch of people spouting something that isn’t true,” Fauci said, “the only recourse you have is to be very, very clear in presenting the scientific data that essentially contradicts that.”
Late Monday, Trump retweeted the video from the account “@stella_immanuel,” who wrote: “Covid has cure. America wake up.”
The video showed a group calling itself America’s Frontline Doctors standing in front of the Supreme Court. During her speech, Stella Immanuel, a Houston-based physician who describes herself on Twitter as a doctor and “God’s battle axe and weapon of war,” claimed hydroxychloroquine was a “cure” and said masks were no longer needed.
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