President Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The President of the United States says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus, despite the FDA warning it could have harmful side effects. Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist, tells Anderson Cooper “we have all the data to support risk and no data to show benefit.” Plus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joins AC360 to react to the President firing the State Department inspector general. CNN reported the IG was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s role in a Saudi arms deal before he was fired. Airdate: May 18, 2020 To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	And good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining us on a day that saw the coronavirus death toll
0:05.0	past 90,000 in this country. The President of the United States said today he is taking a drug to
0:09.7	prevent coronavirus that the FDA warns is dangerous and study after study. Now show is useless
0:15.8	against the virus. The drug is a familiar one by now, hydroxychloroquine, and before going any
0:20.4	further, I do want to just read directly from the FDA's April 24th bulletin on this drug.
0:26.8	The FDA is aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19
0:31.8	treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. Additionally, quote, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine
0:36.7	have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19. But those
0:41.8	first words bear repeating, serious heart rhythm, problems in patients with COVID-19, treated with
0:47.0	hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. And a large study published just days ago in the Journal of the
0:51.7	American Medical Association showed that patients who took the drug in combination with the
0:56.0	antibiotic used in Z-Pax, which the President also touts, and did once again today, were more than
1:01.9	twice as likely to suffer cardiac arrest. That's on top of other studies on hydroxychloroquine or
1:08.0	the related drug chloroquine alone, in which patients have also developed abnormal heart rhythms.
1:12.9	So let's just let that sink in for a moment. The leader of the free world is taking a drug that
1:17.5	shows no apparent benefits for what he's taking it for, could be putting him at risk for serious
1:22.8	heart problems, and here's how he explained it today. The front line workers many, many are taking it.
1:30.4	I happen to be taking it. I happen to be taking it. Hydroxychloroquine.
1:35.2	I'm taking it. Hydroxychloroquine. Right now, yeah. A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it.
1:42.4	Because I think it's good. I've heard a lot of good stories. And if it's not good, I'll tell you
1:46.7	right. You're not going to get hurt by it. Do the White House doctor recommend that you take that?
1:51.2	Is that why you're taking it? Yeah, White House doctor. I didn't recommend it. No, I asked him.
	...

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