Veterans Administration Winds Down Use Of Hydroxychloroquine

TOPLINE

The Veterans Administration has all but stopped using hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment, even as the White House continues to praise the controversial drug despite no evidence of its effectiveness and one study that showed it may actually be dangerous.

KEY FACTS

Key background

Medical providers are allowed to treat patients with hydroxychloroquine while it is being studied further because the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the drug, though the NIH recommends against using a combination of hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin.

News peg

Trump has touted the drug for months after promising early studies were widely covered on Fox News and hyped in right-wing circles. He even said he was taking hydroxychloroquine himself to prevent infection with Covid-19, but has since stopped. Still, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Thursday that Trump would take the drug again if he thought he was exposed to the disease, according to the Washington Post.

Tangent

Another treatment, remdesivir, made by biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, has shown positive results in early clinical trials, earning a bit of optimism from Dr. Anthony Fauci. “The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” he said.

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