President Donald Trump again touted the drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19 in a news briefing on Sunday, even though some of his top health advisers are more cautious and remain divided over how to discuss the drug publicly.

“What do you have to lose?” Trump said in the White House briefing room. “I’m not looking at it one way or another. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early. But what do I know, I’m not a doctor. But I have common sense.”

The president said the federal government had stockpiled 29 million hydroxychloroquine pills and sent millions to labs and the military across the country.

The drug, derived from anti-malaria drug chloroquine, assists people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. CNBC reported that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, worried that Trump’s statements and news surrounding the drug will lead to shortages that could hurt patients who need it for a “proven indication.”

The Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked clinical trials in New York state, but Fauci has repeatedly cautioned that more data is required on the unproven drug.

“The data are really, at best, suggestive,” Fauci said of hydroxychloroquine on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday morning. “There have been cases that show there may be an effect, others no effect.”

He was unwilling to say the drug was effective against the deadly new coronavirus “in terms of science.”

Pressed on why he would give Americans medical advice even though he’s not a physician, Trump responded that it was because he wanted “people to live and I’m seeing people dying.”

“We have people dying today,” he added, arguing the country did not have hours, let alone years, to test potential treatments. Trump referenced tests in France that had shown positive results.

Axios reported that the drug had prompted White House coronavirus task force members to square off in a meeting Saturday. Economic adviser Peter Navarro argued that testing overseas demonstrated “clear therapeutic efficacy," but Fauci asserted there was only “anecdotal evidence” the drug worked against the disease. Researches have noted that studies in France and China did not include control groups, Axios reported.

A few weeks ago, the president personally pushed health officials to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine available to treat the disease even though it had been untested, Reuters reported Saturday.

The federal government then published an unusual guidance informing doctors they had the option to prescribe the drugs, including dosing information based not on peer-reviewed science but on unattributed anecdotes, Reuters reported.

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