White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany ripped cable news outlets for their coverage of hydroxychloroquine after the president revealed he’s been taking the medication.
President Trump has repeatedly touted the anti-malarial medication despite it having no proven or substantial evidence of preventing or treating the coronavirus. While some of the medical experts working with the White House have pushed back on the president’s promotion of the drug, Trump announced Monday that he has been taking it.
Following the president’s revelation, many cable news outlets, Fox News included, ran segments cautioning viewers about the potential dangers of the drug. McEnany ridiculed the ensuing coverage and provided additional information on Trump’s announcement during a Tuesday interview on Fox & Friends.
“The president just wanted to be transparent about his personal health decision that he made in consultation with his doctor, and one of the things that I really want to get out there this morning, that unfortunately there’s a lot of misinformation about is, you know, first: Let me emphasize strongly that any use of hydroxychloroquine has to be in consultation with your doctor,” she began.
“Some of the misreporting on other networks, these apoplectic analyses of hydroxychloroquine, ignore the fact that tens of millions of people around the world have used this drug for other purposes, including some people in my communications office who used it for malaria prophylaxis before traveling to other parts of the world,” McEnany said.
The press secretary declined to comment on whether the president started taking the drug because two White House aides tested positive for the coronavirus. The White House physician said he and Trump decided the “potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks” and acknowledged the COVID-19 outbreak in the administration.
