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DeSantis, hydroxychloroquine pitchman – POLITICO



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listens during a news conference at a drive-through coronavirus testing site | AP Photo

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listens during a news conference at a drive-through coronavirus testing site | AP Photo

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday used his coronavirus briefing to give a choreographed, live-streamed shout-out to hydroxychloroquine, a drug President Donald Trump has touted as a potential miracle cure for Covid-19.

During the briefing, DeSantis took credit for loosening shipments of the drug from India and sought testimonials on the drug from doctors and a patient.

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“One of the number-one questions we’ve been getting in the state of Florida is what treatments are available,” DeSantis said. “One of the things that physicians have been using is this hydroxychloroquine, usually, combined with with Z-Pack.”

DeSantis acknowledged other experimental treatments, but hydroxychloroquine was the only drug he mentioned by name, with the exception of an antibiotic sold as Z-Pack that patients are administered with hydroxychloroquine.

The briefing included a videostreamed conversation between DeSantis and Dr. Sunil Kumar, a critical care and pulmonary physician at Broward Health. Kumar said the drug has helped patients fight the virus.

Hydroxychloroquine has for decades been used to treat arthritis and malaria, but hasn’t undergone the clinical testing necessary to determine if it’s an effective treatment for Covid-19. Still, the president has championed its use and is shipping it to coronavirus hot zones.

Trump’s outsized attention to the drug has disrupted efforts to respond to the outbreak and caused a schism between the White House and career health officials.

The Food and Drug Administration last week authorized emergency use of the medicine for severely ill coronavirus patients who are already in the hospital. And it lifted years-old restrictions on India-based Ipca Laboratories, a manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, in a bid to get more of the drugs into the U.S. at Trump’s urging.

“As this thing was first discussed in Washington, and the FDA made their decision on it, you know, I reached out to physicians and just, you know, asked them, ‘hey, what’s the deal with this?'” DeSantis said. “We want to obviously give patients all the opportunities toward recovery.”

“Every day we’re trying something new,” Kumar told DeSantis, while noting the drug’s limitations and possible risks.

“Understanding the limitations on what you can say about hydroxychloroquine,” DeSantis said, “you would like to have that as a position, as an option to be able to treat the folks who come in with it?”

“Absolutely,” Kumar said.

DeSantis then played video of a patient who gave a testimonial.

Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals provided Florida with a batch of hydroxychloroquine last month, and a second shipment was sent Monday.

Teva manufactures hydroxychloroquine in India, where government officials forbade shipments from leaving the country. DeSantis said he had a hand in getting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow more of the drug to be shipped to the U.S.

“I spoke to President Trump, and then he spoke to Prime Minister Modi, and Modi has made an exception for the United States,” DeSantis said. “Teva is bringing more of this into the United States, they have sent a second shipment already to a Florida hospital and shipped yesterday.”

Amneal Pharmaceuticals also is sending a million doses of the experimental drug to Tallahassee, which are supposed to arrive Wednesday, the governor told reporters Tuesday.

DeSantis differentiated between the use of hydroxychloroquine in hospitals and the death of an Arizona man who ingested chloroquine used to clean aquariums. He noted in that case it was a “layman” who bought “fish tank stuff,” not a doctor treating a patient.

Patients who take hydroxychloroquine paired with antibiotics need to be on a heart monitor because the drugs can cause arrhythmia, Carlos Campo, a doctor at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, said during the Tuesday briefing.

“I would not recommend just starting these as an out-patient because obviously patients cannot be monitored,” Campos said. “The medications themselves can put the patient at risk.”

“So basically, this is something that there should be an option, but the physicians should be really supervising the patients,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis isn’t the only public figure to take up Trump’s championship of hydroxychloroquine. Last month, Twitter asked Fox News host Laura Ingraham to delete a post touting the efficacy of the drug, saying it ran afoul of the company’s rules against misleading health information.

The company also called out Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for a post that made erroneous statements about hydroxychloroquine, calling it “100% effective” in treating Covid-19.

Trump’s fascination with the drug has its root in a March 11 chance meeting on Twitter. Three weeks later, the president was vowing to distribute millions of doses of the drug through the country’s strategic national stockpile, despite a lack of research that the drug works for coronavirus.

More than 14,500 people in Florida have tested positive for the coronavirus and 283 have died.

Gary Fineout contributed to this report.



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