President Donald Trump announced on television that his new miracle drug, hydroxychloroquine, is saving people's lives. "What do you have to lose?" Trump asked Sunday. It's possible to lose several things.
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale explained that the Food and Drug Administration had not approved hydroxychloroquine for use on coronavirus. It has only been approved to treat various other issues like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and malaria.
Dr. Megan Ranney explained that as an emergency room doctor and research scientist herself, she wouldn't use this drug to treat coronavirus unless it's proven to be effective.
"This drug has major side effects," she explained, "including paranoia, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, suppression of your blood counts, so you became more susceptible to infections, it can cause severe cardiac arrhythmias that can even cause death. Now, these are not common side effects, but they're common enough that they should not be taken just willy-nilly. It is not like water. It is not harmless."
"I don't want to be in a lab for a year and a half while people are dying," Trump said. A small trial did find that it wasn't effective in treating coronavirus.
She also refuted Trump's claim that it would take so long to test. Given that funding has been allocated to the National Institutes of Health and trials are already underway, she said it would likely take "a month or two" to test and discover whether or not it works.
"What do I know? I'm not a doctor," Trump confessed. Dale explained that it was absolutely correct. "I want them to try it. It may work, and it may not work."
At least one man died, and his wife was in critical condition when they took a toxic version of hydroxychloroquine called chloroquine, which is used to clean fish tanks and comes in a package that is remarkably similar. They both contain the same ingredients that can help kill parasites, but aquarium cleaner has toxic ingredients.
A fight broke out at the White House on Saturday over the drug between Dr. Anthony Fauci and economic adviser Peter Navarro, who isn't a doctor.
Watch their comments below: