Donald Trump recently announced that he is taking hydroxychloroquine every day to protect himself from a possible Covid-19 infection, even though no study attests to its effectiveness.
- The American president has announced that he is taking hydroxychloroquine
- He clarified that he had not been infected with the virus
- No study has proven the effectiveness of this molecule against Covid-19
Decidedly, Donald Trump does not miss one. While several studies have demonstrated its ineffectiveness and potential serious side effects, the American president declared on May 18 to take hydroxychloroquine every day”for a week and a half”. Because it would have been contaminated by the Covid-19? No, he specified, all of his tests came back negative.
“What have you got to lose?”
The American head of state, who believed that the new coronavirus would disappear “d‘here April, or during the month of April, the heat in general (killing) this kind of virus’which assumed “that we project on the body UV or just a powerful light” to heal and who wondered about the virtues of an intravenous injection of bleach, decided to take chloroquine after hearing “very good things” on this treatment. “You know the expression ‘what have you got to lose?’”he concluded in front of the journalists.
This antimalarial drug sparked debate within the scientific community following statements by Professor Didier Raoult, who believed at the start of the pandemic that it was effective in the treatment of a Covid infection. Numerous studies have therefore been carried out on the presumed effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, but none have been able to conclude positively. On the other hand, the scientific data are clear: taking this molecule could cause harmful side effects.
Its use is therefore not an option for treating Covid patients. The Food and Drug Administration (the American drug agency) also warned at the end of April that there was no proof that this molecule is “safe or effective for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19” and that she could engender “serious heart rhythm problems” and a “risk of ventricular tachycardia”. So to the question “what do you have to lose?” of Donald Trump, we would instinctively answer: a lot.
Trump’s Dangerous Influence
Donald Trump’s whimsical statements are worrying, insofar as his popularity rating had never been so high according to the Gallup Institute (49%) than in mid-April 2020. His speeches are therefore very popular with Americans. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published at the end of April, 47% said they were “very” or “more or less” likely to follow its recommendations on the coronavirus.
This was also the case of Gary, 60, who died after drinking an aquarium maintenance product based on chloroquine phosphate. He and his wife Wanda, afraid of contracting the Covid-19, had decided to drink this substance following a speech by Donald Trump on the subject. Despite his calamitous management of this health crisis (more than 1,500,000 cases and 92,000 deaths), the billionaire is seeking a second presidential term.
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