Coronavirus Crisis: Man Dies After Ingesting Drug That Trump Promoted
It’s no secret President Donald Trump has spewed lies and racism about the coronavirus from his podium
Photo: Unsplash
It’s no secret President Donald Trump has spewed lies and racism about the coronavirus from his podium. From calling it the “Chinese virus” to initially insisting this disease was just like the flu, Trump has only furthered spread harmful untruths. While some politicians say Trump’s inactions will cost people’s lives, now we’re learning that his lousy judgment calls did result in someone’s death.
A couple in Arizona, both in their sixties, ingested chloroquine phosphate on the advice from Trump that the medication would help them against the coronavirus. Within minutes of taking the drug, both became violently sick. The man ended up dying, and the woman is in critical condition.
“We were afraid of getting sick,” the woman said, according to NBC News. “Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.”
Last week, Trump said that chloroquine showed promising signs against the coronavirus, but Dr. Anthony Fauci disagreed and said more testing needs to be done.
“It’s shown very encouraging — very, very encouraging early results. And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. And that’s where the FDA has been so great. They — they’ve gone through the approval process; it’s been approved. And they did it — they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states,” Trump said.
#FactsNotFear@WHO has NOT approved the use of chloroquine for #COVID19 management. Scientists are working hard to confirm the safety of several drugs for this disease.
Please DO NOT engage in self-medication. This will cause harm and can lead to death.#COVID19Nigeria pic.twitter.com/K6kljq0VtW
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) March 20, 2020
“Normally, the FDA would take a long time to approve something like that, and it’s — it was approved very, very quickly, and it’s now approved, by prescription.”
That was all the couple needed to take it upon themselves to administer the drug simply because Trump said it would work. The woman explains that after Trump talked about chloroquine, they remembered they had it in their house.
“I saw it sitting on the back shelf and thought, ‘Hey, isn’t that the stuff they’re talking about on TV?'”
Chloroquine phosphate has ingredients that are used to clean fish tanks at aquariums, and also for saltwater fish, and also has elements that work as an anti-malaria drug. But in that same press conference, Dr. Fauci contradicted Trump and said chloroquine claims are “anecdotal” and that the drug was not part of a “clinical trial.”
>The woman said within 20 minutes of ingesting the drug they began to fill sick.
“I started vomiting,” the woman told NBC News. “My husband started developing respiratory problems and wanted to hold my hand.”
The woman has some advice for us all: “Don’t take anything. Don’t believe anything. Don’t believe anything that the President says & his people…call your doctor.”
