WASHINGTON (WTHR/AP) — President Donald Trump said he is no longer taking hydroxychloroquine.
On Sunday, the president said he had "just finished" a two-week course of the antimalarial drug.
“Finished, just finished,” he said in an interview that aired on Sinclair Broadcasting on Sunday. “And by the way, I’m still here.”
According to NBC News, the president was defending his decision to take and talk about the treatment as the Food and Drug Administration warns against using the drug for COVID-19 outside of hospital settings because of a risk of serious heart problems. Hydroxychloroquine is often used to treat lupus and rheumatoid disease.
“I believe in it enough that I took a program because I had two people in the White House that tested positive,” he said. “I figured maybe it's a good thing to take a program."
Several studies on hydroxychloroquine in treating patients sick with COVID-19 found the drug to be ineffective or harmful to those patients.
The World Health Organization said Monday that it will temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments.
