Dr Anthony Fauci has rebuked Donald Trump’s claim that anti-malaria drug chloroquine could be a game-changer in the fight against COVID-19.
Dr Facui, who is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, made the claim during an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN Thursday evening.
‘There’s no magic drug for coronavirus right now,’ the top doctor told Cooper.
Earlier in the day, Trump told media that there had been positive results after doctors trialled chloroquine on COVID-19 patients, and suggested the drug could be a game-changer.
‘It’s shown very, very encouraging early results. We’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. It’s been approved,’ he said.
However, Dr Fauci said on CNN just a few hours later: ‘Let me put it into perspective for the viewers .. there has been anecdotal non-proven data that it [chloroquine] works… but when you have an uncontrolled trial you can never definitely say that it works’.
Dr Anthony Facui, who is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, told CNN Thursday that there was currently no ‘magic drug’ for COVID-19
He repeated his caution on Friday in an interview with Today, saying: ‘Even though the information is anecdotal that they may work, we need to prove it so people would get the right drug that’s safe and effective.
‘What we’re saying is these are drugs that have some suggestion that they may work,’ he went on, but that controlled trials needed to be done to prove that they are effective.
The University of Minnesota is looking for people who have been in contact with a known positive case of COVID-19 to volunteer for a trial to test Hydroxychloroquine and see if it is effective in preventing people from catching the virus.
They need 1,500 people to take part in the trial and so far have 150.
In an interview on Friday morning on Good Morning America, Dr. David R Boulware, who is leading the trial, said they do not yet know if it works and that President Trump got ‘very excited’ about it.
‘President Trump is very excited about this but there’s still a lot of work to be done… it’s still important to determine: does the medicine work or does it just work in a test tube?’
The university is asking people who think they may be eligible to take part to email covid19@unm.edu for more information.
Fauci said the government was working on more clinical trials with the drug.
‘We’re going to try to get them available in the context of some sort of a protocol where you just don’t distribute drugs willy-nilly.
‘You may make it more accessible than you would have previously, but… get some feel for safety and whether it works.
‘Today there are no proven safe and effective therapies for the coronavirus,’ he concluded.
Chloriquine has been used to treat malaria but also severe arthritis.
Trump said on Thursday that it was preferable to a new drug, because it has been in use for years and is safe.
‘The nice part is it’s been around for a long time so we know that if things don’t go as planned, it’s not going to kill anybody,’ he said.
Side effects of the long-term use of chloroquine include irreversible damage the retina, as signaled by trouble focusing, eye swelling or color changes.
The drug can cause strange, bad and vivid dreams and difficulty sleeping.
The number of coronavirus cases in the US has dramatically increased in the last two weeks
Taking chloroquine can also cause your heart to race, trigger headache, fainting, severe dizziness, nausea, a slow heart rate or weak pulse, muscle weakness, numbness and tingly, anxiety and irritability and low blood counts.
But with the death toll of coronavirus topping 200 in the US, even a drug with significant side effects would be cause for hope in the battle against coronavirus, for which there are currently no proven treatments.
South Korea’s COVID-19 task force went so far as to say that studies on the drug demonstrated it had ‘certain curative effect’ and ‘fairly good efficacy.’
Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine improved more quickly and broke their fevers earlier than those who did not receive the drug.
The drug is also included in China’s treatment guidelines for COVID-19 – described there as ‘chloroquine phosphate – for use in patients between 18 and 65.
It is one of five antivirals suggested in the 7th edition of China’s treatment plan, which also cautions the drug should not be given to patients with heart disease, as it has potential cardiac side effects.
Dr. Facui has been dubbed as ‘the truth teller’ in Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, and has publicly contradicted the President on a number of occasions.
‘You should never destroy your own credibility. And you don’t want to go to war with a president … But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth,’ he told Politico last week.
Last week, the top doctor stated it would be advisable for Trump to have a coronavirus test after he was in contact with a Brazilian politician who was diagnosed with COVID-19. Trump has previously disputed claims that he needed to get a test.
Meanwhile, late last month Dr. Fauci denied he had been ‘muzzled’ by the Trump Administration for bluntly discussing the seriousness of the coronavirus.
‘I have never been muzzled ever and I’ve been doing this since the administration of Ronald Reagan, I’m not being muzzled by this administration,’ Dr. Fauci stated.
Trump similarly stated: ‘He has had that ability to do virtually whatever he’s wanted to do’.