The nation's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Wednesday that hydroxychloroquine isn't effective in treating coronavirus.
France banned use of the drug for coronavirus treatment on Wednesday. Fauci says he's "not sure it should be banned" in the U.S., but that data points to it being potentially dangerous for COVID-19 patients.
"Clearly scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy for it and even the possibility there could be — not could be but there's you know, likelihood that under certain circumstances, might be rare, but you'd see it — adverse events particularly with regard to cardiovascular and arrhythmias that would be associated with it. There was suspicion of that for a while, but as data comes in, it becomes more clear," said Fauci.
President Trump says he has taken hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure. But this month, an observational study of 96,000 patients seriously ill coronavirus patients were found to be more likely to die when taking the drug.
Contains footage from CNN.
