WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Monday that he is taking a malaria drug to protect against the new coronavirus, despite warnings from his own government that it should be administered for only covid-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side effects.
Trump told reporters he has been taking the drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a zinc supplement daily "for about a week and a half now." Trump spent weeks pushing the drug as a potential cure or prophylaxis for covid-19 against the cautionary advice of many of his administration's top medical professionals. The drug has the potential to cause significant side effects in some patients and has not been shown to combat the new coronavirus.
Trump said his doctor did not recommend the drug to him, but he requested it from the White House physician.
"I started taking it, because I think it's good," Trump said. "I've heard a lot of good stories."
The White House physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said in a statement released through the White House press office that, after "numerous discussions" with Trump about the evidence for and against using hydroxychloroquine, "we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks."
The Food and Drug Administration warned health professionals last month that the drug should not be used to treat covid-19 outside of hospital or research settings. Regulators issued the alert for the drug -- which can also be used to treat lupus and arthritis -- after receiving reports of heart rhythm problems, including deaths, from poison control centers and other health providers.
Trump dismissed reports of side effects, saying, "All I can tell you is, so far I seem to be OK."
At least two White House staff members tested positive for covid-19 earlier this month, sparking concerns about the steps taken by the administration to protect the president and sending Vice President Mike Pence and other officials into varying forms of self-isolation.
The White House has since mandated that those in the West Wing wear face coverings and has introduced daily testing for the virus for the president, vice president and those they come in close contact with. Trump said he continues to test negative for the coronavirus.
Trump last underwent an "interim" checkup in a November visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that was not noted on his public schedule. His last complete physical took place in February 2019.
Some prominent doctors said they are worried people would infer from Trump's example that the drug works or is safe.
"There is no evidence that hydroxychloroquine is effective for the treatment or the prevention of covid-19," said Dr. Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association. "The results to date are not promising."
People should not infer from Trump's example "that it's an approved approach or proven," because it's not, said Dr. David Aronoff, infectious diseases chief at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Hydroxychloroquine can cause potentially serious heart rhythm problems even in healthy people, but "it's hard to infer" that Trump's artery plaque, revealed in tests from his 2018 physical, makes the drug especially dangerous for him, Aronoff said.
White House officials did not say whether any other administration officials are taking the drug.
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Trump said he took hydroxychloroquine with an "original dose" of the antibiotic azithromycin. The president has repeatedly pushed the use of the drug with or without the azithromycin, but no large, rigorous studies have found them safe or effective for preventing or treating covid-19.
Two large observational studies, each involving around 1,400 patients in New York, recently found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine. Two new ones published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ reached the same conclusion.
In April, the National Institutes of Health launched a study testing hydroxychloroquine versus a placebo drug in 500 hospitalized covid-19 patients. Last week, NIH announced another study to see whether hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin can prevent hospitalization or death in people with mild to moderate illness. About 2,000 U.S. adults with confirmed coronavirus infections and symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath will get the drugs or placebo pills.
Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Perrone of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/19/2020