House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80, appeared to sneak in a diss about Donald Trump’s weight while reacting to concerning news: the POTUS is now taking hydroxychloroquine. In case the length of the drug’s name wasn’t frightening enough, hydroxychloroquine is used to treat and prevent the mosquito-borne disease malaria (and sometimes lupus and arthritis). It’s now being used in some hospitals worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but Nancy has joined the scientists who are wary of endorsing the drug without conclusive results.
“He’s our president and I rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists,” Nancy told CNN host Anderson Cooper during a live news segment on May 18. However, the interview took a cheeky turn when Nancy clarified why she doesn’t think it’s smart for Trump to be popping anti-malarial pills. “Especially in his age group and his shall we say weight group — ‘morbidly obese’ — they say. So I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Nancy added.
Earlier that day, Trump revealed that he had been taking one hydroxychloroquine pill a day for “about a week and a half” at a press conference, because he has heard “very good things” about it. To further defend his new daily routine, Trump claimed “many frontline workers take [hydroxychloroquine] and they seem to be doing very well.” The president even bragged that he gets tested “every couple of days” and has had “no symptoms,” despite multiple staff members in The White House recently testing positive for COVID-19.
“I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group, and in his, shall we say, weight group: ‘Morbidly obese,’ they say,” says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Pres. Trump’s revelation he is taking hydroxychloroquine. pic.twitter.com/0ImjpEjg9q
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) May 19, 2020
Donald Trump says he's been taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (video via @quicktake) https://t.co/SKkd3xWMvY pic.twitter.com/HQzz0GVPoo
— Bloomberg (@business) May 18, 2020
Keep in mind that Trump said all this after the FDA announced “hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19” on April 24. It has only been used in hospitals because the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization, which allowed the medicines to be temporarily used for “hospitalized patients with COVID-19 when clinical trials are not available, or participation is not feasible.” However, the FDA warned the medicines can have “a number of side effects, including serious heart rhythm problems that can be life-threatening.”
Trump’s ideas of fighting the coronavirus have not exactly been endorsed by scientists. Lysol even had to go out of its way to issue a warning after Trump proposed the idea of disinfectant injections as an anti-coronavirus measure at a press conference on April 23, which he later claimed was just a “sarcastic” jab at reporters.