Malaria drug hydroxychloroquine Trump said he has been taking ‘tied to increased risk of DEATH’ in new study
THE antimalarial drug touted and taken by President Donald Trump has been tied to an increased risk of death in hospitalized coronavirus patients, a new study has found.
Research published in the medical journal Lancet on Friday revealed that people treated with hydroxychloroquine or the related chloroquine were at a higher risk of death than patients who weren't given the medication.
Its authors said they couldn't confirm whether taking the drug resulted in any benefit for coronavirus patients.
"Urgent confirmation from randomized clinical trials is needed," they wrote.
Hospitalized patients typically have a more severe version of the virus, according to Reuters.
The president said he'd been taking it for a "couple of weeks" after receiving a letter from a New York doctor who supposedly used it to treat more than 300 COVID-19 patients.
He appeared to brush off the concerns and revealed he also took the drug with zinc and claimed that frontline workers and "a lot of doctors" take it.
"Frontline workers take it, a lot of doctors take it, I take it," Trump reasoned.
"I'm not going to get hurt by it, it's been around for 40 years for malaria, for lupus. I'm taking the two - the zinc and the hydroxyl. So far I seem to be okay."
"It's been on the market for 60 or 65 years for malaria, lupus, and other things. I think it gives you an additional level of safety," he insisted.