President Donald Trump is confirming he is no longer taking the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
On Sunday, Trump appeared on the Sinclair Broadcast program “Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson.” During the segment, Attkisson mentioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) warnings against the use of the drug as treatment for coronavirus.
The president confirmed he “just finished” taking the unproven drug he has been touting for coronavirus since March. Trump also appeared to defend the use of the drug again, arguing he is “still here.”
“Finished, just finished,” Trump said during the interview which aired on Sunday. “And by the way, I’m still here. To the best of my knowledge, here I am.”
See Trump’s remarks below:
Trump’s latest remarks about hydroxychloroquine come just one week after he admitted he’d been taking the drug, himself.
During a roundtable discussion, the president revealed he had been taking the drug for more than a week as a preventative measure for coronavirus, as previously reported on IJR.
“I’m taking hydroxychloroquine,” Trump said at the time. “I’ve been taking it for the last week and a half. A pill every day.”
Trump says he’s been taking hydroxychloroquine to ward off #coronavirus, despite lack of evidence about its effectiveness. pic.twitter.com/SgjpAJfLPe
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 19, 2020
Shortly after the discussion aired, the FDA and NIH reiterated warnings against the use of the drug for coronavirus while confirming that the drug is not proven to prevent the virus.
Despite criticism from Democratic lawmakers, warnings from health officials, and the latest clinical study insisting the drug could lead to higher risks of death, Trump has continued to double down in his defense of the drug.
Amid heightened criticism about the president taking the drug, Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician who prescribed the medication for the president, released a memo. Assuring that the president is in “good health,” Conley insisted the “potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks.”
“After numerous discussions he and I had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks,” Conley said.