White House Coronavirus Testing Czar Squashes Hydroxychloroquine Claims Anew

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official has said it is time to move on from considering hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment. On Sunday, White House coronavirus testing czar Brett P. Giroir said there is no evidence showing that the drug could treat the disease.

Discussions about hydroxychloroquine resurfaced last week after a video of a controversial doctor advocating the use of the drug in treating COVID-19 had gone viral. In the said video, the doctor claimed having treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients through hydroxychloroquine. President Donald Trump shared the viral video on his Twitter and praised the doctor for her work, despite experts saying that hydroxychloroquine can neither treat nor prevent the new coronavirus.

“Hydroxychloroquine needs to be prescribed by a physician,” said Giroir. “There may be circumstances—I don’t know what they are—where a physician may prescribe it for an individual, but I think most physicians and prescribers are evidence-based and they’re not influenced by whatever is on Twitter or anything else,” he added.

Giroir also squashed claims that the use of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 patients is backed by science. “And the evidence just doesn’t show that hydroxychloroquine is effective, for now. I think we need to move on from that and talk about what is effective,” he said.

Giroir’s remark came days after Trump once again claimed that hydroxychloroquine could cure the new coronavirus. At a press conference on Tuesday, the president said the malaria treatment was key to battling the pandemic. “Many doctors think it is extremely good and some people don’t,” he said. “I happen to believe in it. I would take it. As you know, I took it for a 14-day period and I’m here, right? I’m here,” he added, saying that frontline medical workers would also agree that hydroxychloroquine works in the early stages of the disease.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases expert has said multiple times that the drug is not an effective COVID-19 treatment. “You look at the scientific data and the evidence,” he said in response to Trump’s hydroxychloroquine claim. “And the scientific data… on trials that are valid, 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 added.