Trump Misleads on Hydroxychloroquine, Again

Summary

In announcing that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19, President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate, unsubstantiated or misleading statements related to the drug, which remains an unproven treatment against the coronavirus:

• Trump said he started taking hydroxychloroquine because he thinks “it’s good” and has “heard a lot of good stories.” But there is no published data showing that the medication protects against infection with the coronavirus, and experts recommend such use only within clinical trials.
• As part of his justification for taking hydroxychloroquine, the president repeatedly said that “many” frontline workers take the drug for COVID-19 prevention. It’s unclear how many people do take the drug for prevention, or prophylaxis, but several physicians told us they were not aware of the practice at their institutions.
• Trump insisted that there only has been one “bad survey” of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. That’s false. Numerous studies, including the best evidence to date, do not suggest that hydroxychloroquine is beneficial for COVID-19 patients.
• The president called an unpublished study that used Veterans Affairs data and found no benefit to using hydroxychloroquine “phony” and “false,” and accused the authors of being politically motivated. There is no evidence of political bias, and while the study has not been peer-reviewed, its results are consistent with other published papers.
• Trump was also not transparent about the safety risks of hydroxychloroquine, saying “it doesn’t hurt people” and “you’re not going to get sick or die.” While severe side effects of the drug are rare, they have been reported to the Food and Drug Administration.
• Trump claimed Rick Bright, former director of the agency charged with overseeing the production and purchase of drugs to counter public health threats, must have been “a believer at one point” in hydroxychloroquine because he “signed the application” for emergency use of the drug. Bright, however, said he did so under pressure and “didn’t have a choice.”

Analysis

The president has long touted hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as a COVID-19 treatment, despite a lack of evidence that it’s safe and effective for the disease. 

In recent weeks, Trump had backed off his promotion of the drug, as a string of studies have detailed uncommon but potentially serious side effects and failed to find that the medication is doing much for patients.

Guidelines from the National Institutes of Health, last updated on May 12, find “insufficient clinical data to recommend either for or against” the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, while the FDA has cautioned against the use of the drug for COVID-19 outside of hospitals or clinical trials, given the risk of dangerous heart rhythm problems.

But at the end of a May 18 meeting with representatives of the restaurant industry at the White House, Trump surprised reporters by claiming that he had been taking a hydroxychloroquine pill each day for the last week and a half as a preventive, or prophylactic, measure.

“A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it,” he said. “Because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of