Dr. Harvey Risch, a Yale epidemiology professor, rejected a CNN anchor’s "ludicrous" claim that hydroxychloroquine is too dangerous to even talk about as a potential COVID-19 treatment during an appearance Wednesday on “The Ingraham Angle.”
Earlier this week, CNN anchor Brianna Keilar – who has recently sparred with conservative guests on a fairly regular basis – got into an argument with Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh over hydroxychloroquine.
“It kills people,” Keilar said of hydroxychloroquine.
Murtaugh pointed out that many media members pounced on negative hydroxychloroquine information, such as a Lancet study that was retracted last month when the validity of the data was called into question.
“That study had to be withdrawn,” Murtaugh told Keilar. “Now there is another study that shows it can actually cut deaths by as much as 50 percent.”
Murtaugh was referring to a recent study by researchers at the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan that found early administration of the drug made hospitalized patients substantially less likely to die from coronavirus.
Keilar quickly dismissed the Michigan study and the two bickered until the CNN host said Murtaugh was doing a “disservice to the health of Americans” for even mentioning the drug.
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“Studies have been canceled because this stuff is so dangerous,” Keilar said as she ended the interview.
Laura Ingraham’s primetime show covered the bizarre exchange on Wednesday night, playing clips of the contentious CNN interview.
Ingraham asked Risch, “Who is really doing a disservice to the American people, doctors with decades of experience like yourself, other treating physicians on COVID, or CNN hosts that think hydroxy is so dangerous that we shouldn’t even talk about it?”
“That’s a little funny that we shouldn’t talk about anything,” Risch said. “This is a drug that’s been used for 65-plus years in billons of doses around the world that people take without even thinking about it. And suddenly it’s become dangerous? That’s ludicrous.”
“It’s just amazing we have CNN anchors out there proclaiming on this drug ... it does such a disservice to people,” Ingraham said.
NewsBusters reported when the Lancet results were retracted that CNN spent “90 minutes and 54 seconds heralding a now-debunked study” in a single day back on May 22.
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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has also suggested that CNN has been hypocritical in its coverage of hydroxychloroquine.
Earlier this week, Risch told Ingraham that he thinks hydroxychloroquine could save 75,000 to 100,000 lives if the drug is widely used as a prophylactic against coronavirus, especially for frontline workers. Risch also said discussions about the drug became “political” as opposed to “medical.”