Giuliani touts experimental coronavirus treatment in private conversations with Trump

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s attorney, says he has been touting anti-malaria drugs as a possible coronavirus treatment in private conversations with the president.

Giuliani told The Washington Post on Sunday he has advocated for an anti-malarial drug cocktail to Trump in “three or four” one-on-one phone calls and also to doctors, coronavirus patients and hospital executives.

The drug combination promoted by Giuliani has shown early promise at being able to treat COVID-19, but the treatment has not yet been proven.

“I discussed it with the president after he talked about it,” Giuliani told the Post. “I told him what I had on the drugs.”

The former New York City mayor has promoted the drug combination on his Twitter account, prompting the social media giant to briefly lock him out of his account after he posted the combination was 100 percent effective. 

Giuliani has cited to the president a small study in France that indicated the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine may help treat the disease. But previous research has found it can cause side effects like fatal cardiac complications.

Several people, including infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, have cautioned moving forward with the drugs used to treat malaria, but Giuliani cited the prospective death toll numbers of between 100,000 and 240,000 as reasoning to try the combination.

“We’ve got to take a little risk, god dammit, if we want to save lives,” he said. “We are looking at a slaughter.”

He added he wasn’t working with any of the companies involved with these treatments. 

The White House did not immediately return a request to comment.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency order to approve the use of the anti-malarial drugs for some coronavirus patients. 

“The known and potential benefits to treat this serious or life-threatening virus outweigh the known and potential risks when used under the conditions described in [the order],” FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said, according to the Post.

The president has also publicly praised anti-malaria drugs and encouraged medical professionals to begin using it. Reuters reported Sunday that the president had pressured health officials to make the drugs available for COVID-19 patients. 

“I hope they use it, because I’ll tell you what, what do you have to lose?” the president said during Saturday’s press briefing. “I may take it. I’ll have to ask my doctors about that.”