As the Coronavirus outbreak continues to rage, President Donald Trump has apparently again found his Sharpie-across-the-map moment. After he was directly and repeatedly rebuffed by top public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, Trump still kept up his campaign to cast treatment for malaria as a ready-to-go option for those suffering from the Coronavirus. At this point, it’s just brazen misinformation — but Trump is pushing it anyway (which mirrors his refusal during the onslaught of Hurricane Dorian to admit he’d mistakenly identified Alabama among the states that could face effects. Eventually, he even trotted out a Sharpie-altered official forecast map as, uh, “support” for his claim.)
Just this evening I have seen multiple examples of real world impacts of Trump bullshit. People off to warm climates to evade COVID-19, others stocking up on that malaria drug Trump has a ‘good feeling’ about. People do enough dumb things without the President telling them to.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 21, 2020
On Saturday morning, Trump tweeted:
‘HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains – Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents) be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov’
….be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
He does know that he’s the president, right? And so he doesn’t need to tag public health officials on Twitter to get their attention and get important developments accomplished?
President Trump recently said the FDA had "approved" use of an anti-malaria drug to treat coronavirus patients — and that it would be available "almost immediately."
But the FDA commissioner says "a large, pragmatic clinical trial" would be needed first. https://t.co/gIdWnvVudx
— NPR (@NPR) March 21, 2020
More acutely, Trump is peddling misinformation. At a Friday press conference, Dr. Fauci explicitly said that “no,” the treatment to which Trump is referring can not be used to combat the Coronavirus.
Fauci explained:
‘The information that you’re referring to specifically is anecdotal. It was not done in a controlled clinical trial, so you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.’
Trump is brazenly conflating anecdotal evidence with tested scientific facts and readiness. One might hope that a president of the United States would grasp the importance of a clinical trial in treatment development, especially in the context of a public health crisis like the Coronavirus outbreak. Yet, it’s unclear that Trump does actually grasp any of this.
Nigeria reported two cases of chloroquine poisoning after U.S. President Trump praised the anti-malaria drug as a treatment for the coronavirus https://t.co/WuUju2Cej7
— Bloomberg (@business) March 21, 2020
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who was also at a Friday Coronavirus response team press conference, insisted that he wanted to avoid “false hope” and explained:
‘We may have the right drug, but it might not be in the appropriate dosage form right now, and it might do more harm than good.’
At that press conference, Trump had insisted:
‘I feel good about it. That’s all it is. Just a feeling. You know, I’m a smart guy. I feel good about it. And we’re going to see. You’re going to see soon enough.’
The fact that Trump, as the president of the United States, is standing in front of the nation and suggesting that the suffering public can bank on a drug that he has a “good feeling” about is just outlandish. Americans need support — they need Coronavirus tests and supplies for treatment like respirators and ventilators. They don’t need Trump’s “hunches” and “feelings.”
The issue mirrors others that have emerged in the president’s response. At that Friday press conference, at the mere mention of “scared Americans,” Trump flipped out and called the person who asked about them a “terrible reporter.” It’s as if he simply refuses to acknowledge that maybe — just maybe — everything isn’t about him and his public image.
