In a meeting on Tuesday, President Donald Trump strongly defended his decision to take hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic against coronavirus, despite any scientific evidence — and claimed the people who died while taking it were going to die anyway.

Many “great studies” back up the use of hydroxychloroquine, said Trump. He contrasted this with the “phony VA study” that cast doubt on its use.

In fact, there are multiple large studies revealing hydroxychloroquine is worthless for treating infected patients, although a study into whether it can be used prophylactically, as Trump is doing, is ongoing. And as Trump’s own VA secretary quickly pointed out, the VA didn’t actually study anything — what he is referring to is a meta-analysis of cases within the VA system.

Trump went on to add that hydroxychloroquine is “used by thousands and thosuands of front-line workers” and that “it doesn’t harm you.” As for the people who died of heart complications after taking it, Trump said, they “were ready to die” anyway.

Trump calls study on HCQ treatment for vets with Covid “a phony study put out by the VA”
“(T)hey gave it … to people that were ready to die … everybody was old” and had “bad problems with hearts,” diabetes
POTUS say researchers were “obviously not friends of my administration”

— Maegan Vazquez (@maeganvaz) May 19, 2020

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