United States and Donald Trump. The country continues to face the most painful of a pandemic that has already claimed the lives of 92,072 people while confirming 1,552,315 cases of coronavirus. The president remains focused on generating media neglect in a year in which he will seek to be re-elected to the post.
As part of the usual press conferences to report on the progress of the pandemic in the country, the representative announced that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine for two weeks, an antimalarial drug whose efficacy against Covid-19 is not proven.
In fact, the Administration itself (from the FDA) discourages this remedy outside the hospital environment or from a clinical trial, due to the risk of heart problems that results in:
U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar
“Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for the treatment or prevention of covid-19. These drugs are being studied in clinical trials for covid-19, and we have authorized their temporary use during the covid-19 pandemic for the treatment of the virus in hospitalized patients when clinical trials are not yet available, or where participation is not feasible, through an Emergency Use Authorization,” the FDA said.
But Trump, for his part, thinks or thinks differently: “I think it’s good, I’ve heard a lot of positive stories about it. And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you that. It’s not going to hurt me. It’s been there for about 40 years, for malaria, lupus, for other things. I take it, workers on the front line take it. A lot of doctors take it.”
Similarly, from a video conference in which he met with several entrepreneurs, the president marked his interest in the resumption of the basketball league, over the business crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic.
In this vein, already in the afternoon and from a letter published on his social media, Trump redoubled his crusade against the World Health Organization (WHO) and threatened to cut the funds permanently, until now suspended, and with the possible departure of his country from the agency.
“If WHO does not commit to significant substantive improvements over the next 30 days, I will permanently make my temporary suspension of funds permanent and reconsider our membership in the agency,” he warned.
In the four-page missive, the representative announced that his government and Tedros “have already started talks on how to reform the organization,” but added that “there is no time to waste” and that “action is needed quickly.”
The disinterest in managing the country’s risk was also referred to by U.S. Secretary of Health Alex Azar, who said during the World Health Organization (WHO) assembly that the agency “failed its mission” to share information with the international community on the coronavirus pandemic, and called for it to assume its responsibilities for it.
