And I say it. What do you have to lose? I'll say it again. What do you have to lose?

On Saturday, President Trump again touted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Take it. I really think they should take it.

The U.S., he announced, has stockpiled 29 million doses, though the basis for using the drug to treat the disease is entirely anecdotal.

Some doctors are already using it in hospitals around the country.

Some report that it might be useful in the early stages of COVID-19, but we really don't know.

And what do we have to lose? There are side effects, experts warn, and it is potentially fatal for patients with heart problems or who are

on certain antidepressants. And then there's the side effect of a shortage for people who are

actually prescribed hydroxychloroquine for illnesses

like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Yeah, we have to be careful, Laura, that we don't assume something works based on an anecdotal

report that's not controlled.

And I refer specifically to hydroxychloroquine.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

has been urging caution in White House briefings and in media interviews,

such as this one with Fox's Laura Ingram.

There's a lot of buzz out there on the internet, on the social media about that.

We need to look at it in a scientific way.

Well, you know, those studies, some of them were not control.

So why the intense media interest in hydroxychloroquine, even before the president started talking it up,

reporting this week for The Guardian,

Julia Carrey Wong traced the not-so-winding path from Fox News to Trump's ears.

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