President Trump’s top trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro said that the government was “sitting on” millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine after the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorization for the unproven coronavirus treatment.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic where over one thousand Americans died today,” Navarro said to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday. “One thousand Americans died yesterday. And if you have a medicine that there’s relatively little or no downside risk and possible upside, why would you not let the American people have it? And right now the American people really can’t have it because I can’t ship it to distributors or hospitals, because the FDA doesn’t allow it for off-label use, and almost half the states have strict regulators, who won’t allow doctors to prescribe.”
Navarro has championed the drug as a safe and effective prophylactic for the coronavirus and criticized the FDA’s decision, which has it called “precipitous” and “based on bad science.”
Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial used commonly to treat a range of autoimmune disorders, including Lupus. Its efficacy for fighting the coronavirus is unproven.
The administration acquired more than 60 million doses before the FDA restricted hydroxychloroquine’s off-label use, amid conflicting study results.
Trump said he took the drug for two weeks after coming into contact with a person who later tested positive for the virus.
