Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to include Dr. Fauci’s concerns with the methodology of the Ford study cited by Trump.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump defended the group of doctors who spoke about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine during a press conference on Monday.
The President said he knew that Facebook, Twitter, and Google had removed videos of the doctors’ press conference that had been published by Breitbart News on Facebook and immediately went viral.
Trump today doubled down on his promotion of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus despite no evidence of the drug’s efficacy in doing so.
“I happen to think it works in the early stages. I think frontline medical people believe that, too — some. Many” https://t.co/q8lbzqpYEV pic.twitter.com/2isTeMUqOE
— POLITICO (@politico) July 29, 2020
Trump: ‘Many doctors think its extremely good and some people don’t’
“I don’t know why, I think they are very respected doctors,” Trump said, questioning the social media companies’ motives.
President Trump noted that he knew of many doctors who reported that hydroxychloroquine was “extremely successful” in treating COVID-19 particularly when combined with zinc and azithromycin.
“Many doctors think its extremely good and some people don’t,” Trump said. “Some people, I think, it’s become very political.”
“I happen to believe in it,” the President added.
The President’s son, Donald Trump, Jr’s Twitter account was suspended on Tuesday for sharing the video.
.@DonaldJTrumpJr responds on #Tucker to Twitter suspending him but won't crack down on Chinese gov't propaganda. He also called out the pro-censorship liberal media, including "Fake Jake" (@JakeTapper) being able to tweet a positive hydroxychloroquine news story, but Trump can't pic.twitter.com/AuLLSdpGZU
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 29, 2020
President Trump says of drug ‘It’s safe’
President Trump reminded members of the media that he took hydroxychloroquine for two weeks and showed so signs of side effects.
“It’s safe,” Trump said. “It doesn’t cause problems. I had no problem. I had absolutely no problem.”
Trump added, “It didn’t get me and it’s not going to hopefully hurt anybody.”
Trump also noted studies the mainstream media has ignored about the effectiveness of the drug, even as other health experts continue to warn against it.
A video shared by Pres. Trump was taken down by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter because it made false claims about the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine.
The FDA says the drug is not effective in the treatment of COVID-19 and can have harmful side effects.
Here’s @benstracy pic.twitter.com/aNAnBflDle
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) July 28, 2020
The President says the media won’t report anything positive about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine ‘Because I recommend it’
“I’ve read a lot about hydroxy,” Trump said, referring to a study from the Henry Ford Health System. The President also cited the reported effectiveness of the drug according to Yale School of Public Health Dr. Harvey Risch.
However, Trump’s own COVID task force leader, Dr. Fauci, noted the shortcomings of the Ford Health study later in the week: “The Henry Ford hospital study that was published was a noncontrolled retrospective cohort study that was confounded by a number of issues, including the fact that many of the people who were receiving hydroxychloroquine were also receiving corticosteroids, which we know from another study gives a clear benefit in reducing deaths with advanced disease.”
Further, Fauci said, “So, that study is a flawed study. And I think anyone who examines it carefully sees that it is not a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.”
Trump himself is convinced that the opposition to hydroxychloroquine was merely the same old partisan politics.
Trump said, “I think it could have a very positive impact in the early stages, and I don’t think you lose anything by doing it, other than politically, it doesn’t seem to be too popular, you know why?”
“Because I recommend it,” he concluded.