Despite weeks of warnings from medical professionals, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that the drug is still unproven, the president continues to stun experts by defying all scientific advice. “What do you have to lose?” Mr. Trump said in a press briefing on Saturday. “I really think they should take it. But it’s their choice. And it’s their doctor’s choice or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine. Try it, if you’d like.”

As a person with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, three other lesser known autoimmune diseases, chronic asthma and other health issues (I’m a bit of an overachiever), I fall into that small percentage of people who are most likely to die from the coronavirus. For the last two months I have been isolating in our tiny New York City apartment, terrified that I would become infected. So far, I have been lucky; I’ve not been exposed to it. But now I have to worry about dying from a lack of hydroxychloroquine.

Back in 1997 I was a young public defender, one of the original eight attorneys who opened the Bronx Defenders nonprofit. I was working day and night, too busy to worry when I discovered my hair falling out; I chalked it up to stress. When my knees started to swell, I figured it was from standing in the courtroom all day. It wasn’t until I couldn’t get out of bed that I finally sought medical attention. I was given a diagnosis of lupus and immediately put on hydroxychloroquine, along with some other stronger medications to help calm the flare.

Since then, hydroxychloroquine has been my saving grace. I’ve been taking it for more than 22 years. I even took the medication while I was pregnant. Conclusive studies — not the kind Mr. Trump is citing — found that keeping pregnant women with lupus on hydroxychloroquine stabilizes the mother and consequently the fetus.

I’m not trying to say that my life matters more than others. But I do have a young daughter and loving husband, and while I can’t practice law anymore, I do teach narrative medicine, an emerging field in health care, at two medical schools and try to make a positive difference in the world. I am not ready for my flame to be snuffed out. Whoever says that old and sick people would want to die to save our economy is dead wrong.