Moments after President Donald Trump shockingly declared that he has been taking the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as preventive treatment for the coronavirus, Fox News host Neil Cavuto warned viewers that the drug could literally kill them.
“All right, that was stunning,” Cavuto gasped after Trump’s remarks concluded. “The President of the United States just acknowledged that he’s taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug that is really meant to treat malaria and lupus. The president insisted that it has enormous benefits for patients either trying to prevent or already have COVID-19.”
The veteran Fox News anchor went on to note that while the president in the past has said “what have you got to lose” regarding taking the drug, several recent studies showed that vulnerable people do “have one thing to lose—their lives.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Cavuto highlighted the results from clinical trials and extensive studies that revealed no noticeable efficacy in treating COVID-19, including a recent government-funded Veterans Affairs study that found more deaths associated with coronavirus patients who took the drug as a treatment.
“The VA study to which the president alluded wasn’t a loaded political one, it was a test on patients there,” Cavuto declared. “And those who took it in a vulnerable population including those with respiratory and other conditions, they died.”
“I want to stress again, If you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus or in a worst-case scenario, you are dealing with the virus, and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you,” the Fox host strongly stated. “I cannot stress that enough. This. Will. Kill. You.”
After pointing out that the Food and Drug Administration has warned against the use of the drug due to serious side effects such as “serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19,” Cavuto brought on a doctor to discuss Trump’s announcement, who said he was “very surprised” by Trump’s revelation.
“As far as our treatment of COVID-19 patients, whether you are slightly ill or very ill, we have seen no effect whatsoever with this drug,” St. Joseph University Hospital Chairman Dr. Bob Lahita said, expressing additional concerns about the potential for fatal arrhythmia.
While Cavuto was issuing a dire warning to Fox News viewers about the drug, Fox News host Laura Ingraham has continued to promote the drug as a potential “game-changer” nightly, even as her other colleagues quietly stopped touting hydroxychloroquine in late April after several studies laid doubt as to its efficacy.
