Fox News staffers also backed away from promoting drug after a recent US trial did not go well

This article is more than 4 months old

This article is more than 4 months old

Donald Trump and conservative supporters have backed away from hyping the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure for the coronavirus. Fox News staffers have also pivoted from promoting the anti-malarial drug.

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The dial-back came as a new report showed that a recent US trial of hydroxychloroquine had not gone well – and before a senior government doctor who led efforts to produce a Covid-19 vaccine told the New York Times he believed he was sacked because he pressed for rigorous testing of the supposed treatment.

“Obviously there have been some very good reports,” Trump said in response to questions about hydroxychloroquine at a Tuesday press briefing. “Perhaps this one’s not a good report, but we’ll be looking at it.”

Trump had been relentlessly pushing the drug as a therapy for coronavirus, including during public updates by the coronavirus taskforce in the White House briefing room.

“It’s a very strong, powerful medicine. But it doesn’t kill people,” Trump told reporters on 5 April. “We have some very good results and some very good tests. What really do we have to lose?”

Most recently, meeting former patients who had recovered from Covid-19, he pressed some on whether they or their loved ones had used it.

“So you took the hydroxy?” he asked. “Why did you take the hydroxy? Why did you do that? You saw it on television?”

The malaria drug showed no benefit in a relatively large trial of its use at US veterans hospitals.

An analysis showed that nearly a third of veterans at US military hospitals died when treated with hydroxychloroquine, a greater fraction than patients who received standard treatment.

“These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs,” researchers wrote.

Dr Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from the 368-patient sample, as it was still a limited trial and its findings have not been peer-reviewed.

“This study is a small retrospective study at the VA [veterans affairs department],” Hahn said. ‘This is something that a doctor would need to consider as part of a decision in writing a prescription for hydroxychloroquine.”

Trump earlier authorized the deployment of more than 25m doses of the drug from the national stockpile, creating a scarcity for those who use it to treat malaria, lupus and other illnesses.

Play Video 2:59 Trump grilled over continued promotion of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus – video

Administration allies, including high-profile Fox News personalities, have promoted the drug. According to the progressive watchdog Media Matters, Fox News personalities and guests mentioned hydroxychloroquine nearly 300 times between 23 March and 6 April.

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The same group found hosts have stopped mentioning the drug in recent days, reporting that mentions dropped 77% over five recent days compared with the previous five-day period. Fox News only reported the latest study’s findings on its website.

A Politico review of White House briefings and cable news coverage found Trump hardly mention the drug last week, avoiding it entirely during briefings on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Trump did retweet a story by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch on Saturday, which claimed the president’s “bold gamble on hydroxychloroquine appears to be paying off”.

The statement was not backed by scientific research, but rather cited “medical professionals in New York”.

Drugmaker Novartis won FDA approval on Monday to conduct a randomized trial of hydroxychloroquine.

Health experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the leading expert on the White House coronavirus taskforce, have repeatedly urged caution and played down hype about new and unproven treatments.