'The Wire' Actor Wendell Pierce Calls Outs Trump’s Claims Of Hydroxychloroquine Treating COVID-19

During the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, medical experts considered the malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine as a possible medicine to treat COVID-19 patients. But they soon discovered its effects in patients -- it was either useless or turned out to be fatal. But that has not deterred President Donald Trump from promoting the drug, going as far as to say that he has been taking it for “a few weeks” now.

Of the many who lashed out at his comments, one was HBO series "The Wire" actor, Wendell Pierce.

Playing the lead role in renowned series, Pierce slammed Trump for spreading a wrong and possibly dangerous message as people who will take the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine may find that it has rather lethal effects.

“The President lies and then the next day his government becomes complicit in the deception,” he wrote in a tweet. “Hydroxychloroquine almost killed one of my employees. The risk is dangerous, Mr. President. You must have a financial stake in this drug you keep pushing,” said Wendell Pierce. He was one of the many people who condemned the President for his comments.

He also aired his doubts regarding the running tradition of the U.S. government to promote drugs that may prove to be more fatal than beneficial.

“A notable aspect of the 1976 swine flu vaccine is that an FDA researcher who raised questions about the safety of that vaccine was dismissed for insubordination. But the Ford Administration proceeded nonetheless with the vaccine as part of a national immunization program,” he explained.

“Merck & other vaccine manufacturers incredibly were indemnified against any liability. Some vaccinated folk had serious complications & some died, after which the national immunization program was discontinued. That’s a debacle that I’m doubtful the FDA will want to repeat,” he further added.

But the President has already rubbished the studies that prove the harm the anti-malarial drug can cause, claiming that it was all just a political attack on him. “That was a false study done,” he told during a press briefing. “Where they gave it to very sick people. Extremely sick people. People that were ready to die. It was given by obviously not friends of the administration.”