President Donald Trump tweeted in the defense of disproved Covid-19 treatment

US President Donald Trump tweeted on the promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.

Jammu, Jul 29: President Donald Trump issued a stout defense on Tuesday of a disproved use of a malaria drug as a treatment for the coronavirus, hours after social media companies moved to take down videos that were promoting its use as potentially harmful misinformation.
The president, in a marked shift from the more measured approach he’s taken toward the virus in recent days, took to Twitter to promote hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, and to amplify criticism of Dr.Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. In a White House briefing, Trump defended his decision to promote a viral video of group of doctors promoting the use of the drug Monday, even though his own administration withdrew emergency authorization for its use against the coronavirus.



“I think they’re very respected doctors,” Trump said, adding they believed in the drug. “There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about it.” The doctors, members of a group called America’s Frontline Doctors, took part in an event organized by Tea Party Patriots Action, a dark money group that has helped fund a pro-Trump political action committee.
Scientific studies have shown hydroxychloroquine can do more harm than good when used to treat symptoms of Covid-19.
Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others shared video of the event on Facebook and Twitter, prompting both companies to step in and remove the content as part of an aggressive push to keep the sites free of potentially harmful information about the virus — though not before more than 17 million people had seen one version of the video circulating on the web.
The decision to remove the videos sparked conservative claims of “censorship,” with Simone Gold, one of the doctors, tweeting that “there are always opposing views in medicine.” “Treatment options for Covid-19 should be debated, and spoken about among our colleagues in the medical field,” she wrote. “They should never, however, be censored and silenced.” Others stressed the differences between medical opinion and peer-reviewed scientific studies.



Many high-quality studies have found no evidence that hydroxychloroquine, when used with or without the antibiotic azithromycin, as touted many times by Trump, helps treat coronavirus infection or prevent serious disease from it. They include studies commissioned by the US National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization and universities in the US and around the world.
Later, Trump appeared to back away from his criticism of Fauci, saying, “I get along with him very well” and even appearing envious of his widespread approval rating.
“He’s got a very good approval rating, and I like that,” Trump said. Later he added that Fauci and White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx work for him, “And yet they’re highly thought of but nobody likes me.”
Trump, in recent interviews, has described Fauci as “a bit of an alarmist” and accused him of making “mistakes” in his coronavirus guidance. But Trump also says he gets along with the longtime head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Updated On 7/29/2020 2:35:18 PM