Dr. Mehmet Oz called on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to lift a recent ban on a pair of drugs touted by President Trump as possible treatments for the coronavirus.
Cuomo issued an executive order last week limiting doctors in New York state from prescribing anti-malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients in state-approved clinical trials, and for FDA-approved uses as an antimalarial or autoimmune treatment, and then only for a 14-day supply with no refills, Newsday reported.
“I think that was why Gov. Cuomo passed that law. To prevent people from taking it and putting it in their cupboards just in case,” Oz said Tuesday on Fox News. “I have more confidence in Americans than that … It’s an inexpensive, old malaria drug. We’ll have enough of it eventually. We ought to lift that ban.”
Trump said Monday, “Hydroxychloroquine is something that I have been pushing very hard. I think we’re going to have a good idea over the next three days because it’s been used now in New York at my request — 1,100 people. It’s been used. I think that’s better than testing it in a laboratory. But the doctors tell me no.”
The drug is currently being used in clinical trials in New York, the state with the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the country. The Food and Drug Administration issued a limited emergency use authorization of the two malaria drugs Sunday night.
“I suspect there were concerns for the folks with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus who are dependent on chloroquine and couldn’t get it,” Oz added.
