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.” 
 

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.