White House trade adviser Peter Navarro bashed “hydroxy hysteria" during a gaggle with reporters on Tuesday, saying the media has been against hydroxychloroquine ever since President Trump spoke positively about it.
Researchers at the Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan recently found that early administration of the drug makes hospitalized patients substantially less likely to die. A statement from the Trump campaign hailed the study as "fantastic news," after the mainstream media had largely condemned Trump for pushing the drug.
The findings, conservatives said, highlighted efforts by media partisans to undermine confidence in the drug simply to undercut the president, who has long been an advocate of trying to use hydroxychloroquine to combat coronavirus.
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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the media has been against hydroxychloroquine ever since President Trump spoke positively about it.
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Navarro told reporters outside the White House that if the study is backed up by additional studies, it will prove Trump was right all along.
“So, as the president likes to say, let's see what happens, but if the results of the Detroit study is confirmed in later studies, then Trump was right on hydroxychloroquine saving lives and early treatment use can lead to 50 percent reduction in mortality," said Navarro, accusing the mainstream media and "portions of the medical community" for turning the use of the drug into a political battle with Trump.
"[They] created undue fear and hysteria over a drug, a medicine, used for over 60 years. [It's] relatively safe and prescribed to pregnant women for malaria zones. That's the state of play right now,” Navarro said.
“All I'm saying here is give hydroxy a chance and don't give in to hysteria. If prescribed by a doctor, the odds it can harm you is way smaller than the odds it can help you,” Navarro added.
“What's important here, the message to you as journalists, this hydroxy hysteria, we have to acknowledge as soon as POTUS said it could be helpful, it set off a debate, and as I watched the coverage as studies came out... I was horrified.”
At a March 19 White House briefing, Trump remarked: "Now, a drug called chloroquine, and some people would add to it, hydroxychloroquine, so chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine ... [has] shown very encouraging, very, very encouraging early results." The president acknowledged that the drug may not "go as planned" and that more testing was needed, but that "we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately."
That statement prompted immediate mockery from journalists.
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"Trump peddles unsubstantiated hope in dark times," read a March 20 "analysis" by CNN's Stephen Collinson. Saying Trump was "adopting the audacity of false hope" and embracing "premature optimism," Collinson charged that "there's no doubt he overhyped the immediate prospects for the drug" because the Food and Drug Administration had not provided an explicit timeline on approving the drug to treat coronavirus.
The media onslaught continued. "Trump is giving people false hope of coronavirus cures. It’s all snake oil," read one Washington Post headline. Added the Post's editorial board: "Trump is spreading false hope for a virus cure – and that’s not the only damage."
Salon, Holden noted, called Trump's hope in the new treatment his "most dangerous flim-flam: False hope and quack advice."
Michael Cohen, a Boston Globe columnist, urged networks to stop airing Trump's coronavirus press briefings because he was spreading "misinformation" about a potential cure.
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And NBC News complained, "Trump, promoting unproven drug treatments, insults NBC reporter at coronavirus briefing."
The New York Times' Kurt Eichenwald reported that a "Louisiana MD" on the "front lines of the COVID-19 fight" had told him that "Hydroxychloroquine doesn't work" and that "amateurs who dont [sic] understand research" were driving up demand for the drug. ("Count me skeptical of your source here, Kurt," Holden wrote.)
Vox mocked Trump's "new favorite treatment" for the drug and said the evidence is "lacking" that it works.
Back in April, Navarro defended his stance on hydroxychloroquine during a heated interview on CNN.
Fox News’ Kellianne Jones contributed to this report.