>> The FDA has finally issued a warning on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, citing
serious poisoning and deaths as the reason it should be avoided. Now this is the drug
that the Donald Trump had been promoting during his pressers, even though there was very little
scientific data indicating that it could be a treatment for coronavirus.
And now that we know through various studies that have happened recently the drug is actually
incredibly dangerous if people plan on using it as a coronavirus treatment. So CNBC reported
that the agency, meaning the FDA, said that it became aware of reports of serious heart
rhythm problems in patients with the virus who were treated with the malaria drug, often
in combination with the Z-Pak.
So that's the drug that's usually used for the seasonal flu. It also warned physicians
against prescribing the drugs to treat the coronavirus outside of the hospital. So just
to give you a little excerpt from the statement released by the FDA, they write that hydroxychloroquine
and chloroquine can cause abnormal heart rhythms such as QT interval prolongation and a dangerously
rapid heart rate.
So we already knew, I mean, we had already shown you some studies indicating that there
were pretty significant side effects to this drug that impact the heart. And based on the
studies that have been done recently, so many people died while receiving treatment with
hydroxychloroquine that studies had to be halted.
One example was a study that was being done in Brazil. Sweden decided to stop using the
drug as a treatment for coronavirus. And these are things that we should all be aware of
because, unfortunately, the person leading this country is spreading all sorts of misinformation
about it and people could die.
And so you need to be fully aware of what the risks are.
>> So Trump has said that it was a game changer, that it might have been one of the greatest
inventions in medical history. Well, the study out today in the American Medical Association
peer reviewed, as Ana explained to you.
One other thing that Trump said, before I tell you the key quote from the study, he
said, what do you have to lose? Why don't you just try it?
>> Your life. >> What do you have to lose, right? And the
study said that the primary outcome was death.
So apparently we have our answer. What you have to lose is your life. Nearly two dozen
patients died during the study. So that's chloroquine, and this-
>> And it's amazing because Trump had been promoting this drug during every single coronavirus
press conference he was having. And then all of a sudden he stopped talking about it and
he was called out for it.
Get a load of how he denies the change of behavior.
>> Hydroxychloroquine as a cure. >> We'll see what happens. We've had a lot
of very good results and we had some results that perhaps aren't so good. I don't know,
I just read about one but I also read many times good.
So I haven't at all, and it's a great for malaria, for lupus, for other things, and
we'll see what it is. >> And so let's just take a quick look at
the fact check because Trump's lying and it's very clear.
>> He has not stopped hyping up hydroxychloroquine.
By the numbers we know that's untrue. My colleague Marshall Cohen posted a chart showing that,
for example, between March 19th and March 25th he mentioned it 15 times. Between April
16th and 22nd just once, so that has fallen off.
>> Yeah. >> I'm glad, Cenk, that he's not talking about
it anymore, but he needs to issue a self-correction because he had been propping up this drug
as a treatment for coronavirus every single day.
And so he needs to let his supporters know that this is not something that's gonna help
them and could actually kill them if they use it as a treatment for coronavirus.
>> The idea that Donald Trump would ever admit he was wrong in anything is, of course, comical.
It would never do it, which by the way shows you how incredibly weak he is. Insecure little,
little baby because a confident person can admit when they're wrong. If you ever watch
the show, I admit it all the time, okay? And we joke around about what an ego I have, obviously
joking.
I don't know where people would get that idea. But putting kidding aside, I tell you when
I'm right. It's a little tongue in cheek, but it's also telling you, hey, look, we know
what we're talking about. We've studied these things so trust us when we say something's
gonna turn out one way.
But if it turns out I'm wrong, I come out here and say it immediately cuz I don't want
you guys to have the wrong impression. And we care about being right. We care about facts.
Trump would never do that. In fact, that's why some people think he did the insane thing
last night of saying that perhaps you should inject disinfectant and put it in your body
in your lungs.
And maybe ultraviolet light or very serious light could be injected into your body to
cure you, cuz he's weirdly desperately looking for a cure. And I'll tell you why, cuz he
wants to be the hero of the story. He's a little child and he wants to save the day.
It wasn't the doctors. It wasn't the scientists. It was actually Donald Trump who found the
cure. And so that's why at first he thought it was this hydroxychloroquine, and if it
turns out it was right he was gonna come out and say, I told you, it was me.
I knew it before the doctors. In fact, he said at one point in the beginning he said,
the doctors say I know this stuff better than anybody else does. Maybe I should have got
into that line of work instead of what I did. What a buffoon, so he moves from something
that killed people to something that kills people way more effectively, which is injecting
disinfectant into your body.
>> Right, and look, yeah, I think part of it is that he wants to be the hero. But the
other issue is that the health experts who surround him are people who have worked for
the government under both Democrat and Republican presidents for decades, okay? And he doesn't
trust people like that.
He thinks that they're part of the deep state. And so he is a conspiracy theorist who thinks
that people are purposely destroying his presidency so he doesn't get reelected. Which is why
he thinks that he needs to question everything they do and promote things that they have
not had actual scientific data backing.
And it's scary because, again, what depresses me the most about all of this is that people
die under his watch because of his incompetence, because of his ego, and because of the fact
that he refuses to trust the very people he should trust. And this is what we're dealing
with.
And his base, the people who support him, are immovable. They will not listen to the
facts. They go ahead and listen to what he has to say, and they make excuses for his
incompetence all
the time.