Today during the daily White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting, President Trump said he was pushing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to eliminate barriers to using the antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat COVID-19 infections."It's been around for a long time, so we know if things don't go as planned it's not going to kill anybody," Trump said of the drug, which is also used to treat arthritis symptoms in some patients.
An unpublished, small, non-randomized trial based on French COVID-19 patients shows the drug has promise against the virus.FDA chief more cautiousBut FDA Commissioner Steve Hahn, MD, struck a more cautious tone during the press conference.