Fox News’s Neil Cavuto warned that people must be careful with hydroxychloroquine, saying immediately after President Trump said that he had been taking the drug for more than a week that it could kill people who have certain underlying health conditions.
Cavuto offered the warning immediately after coverage of the president’s surprise remarks ended, saying of Trump’s comments, “That was stunning.”
Trump said he had decided to take the drug to ward off the coronavirus based on positive reviews he’s heard from front-line health care workers who have had good results treating patients with it.
But Cavuto warned that a number of studies suggest it could be dangerous for people to take hydroxychloroquine.
“The fact of the matter is though, when the president said ‘what have you got to lose?’, in a number of studies, those certain vulnerable population has one thing to lose: their lives,” Cavuto said.
“If you are in a risky population here, and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus, or in a worse-case scenario you are dealing with the virus and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you,” the “Your World with Neil Cavuto” host said.
“I cannot stress enough. This will kill you. So, again, whatever benefits the president says this has, and certainly it has had for those suffering from malaria, dealing with lupus, this is a leap that should not be taken casually by those watching from home or assuming, well the president of the United States says it’s OK,” he said.
Cavuto said he was not seeking to get involved in a political debate with his own comments.
“I only make this not to make a political point here but a life and death point. Be very, very careful,” he said.
Cavuto cited a Department of Veterans Affairs study that demonstrated the risks of taking hydroxychloroquine if a patient has respiratory or heart ailments. The study showed patients, who had these conditions and took the drug, died.
He also pointed to other studies that showed the drug’s usage had no statistical different result on treating coronavirus.
Trump responded to Cavuto’s remarks in a tweet Monday night, saying Fox News “is no longer the same.”
“You have more anti-Trump people, by far, than ever before,” he said. “Looking for a new outlet!”
Manny Alvarez, Fox News’s senior managing editor for health news also spoke out about Trump’s comments, calling it “highly irresponsible” for the president to announce he was taking the drug.
He said most hospitals including his are not using hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus.
“And I would like to hear from the White House physician to come out tomorrow and explain to me what has changed in a week and a half or two weeks for the president to take this medication when all of the data that has been coming out, very repetively, has shown that there is not a major benefit,” Alvarez said.
Following the president’s announcement, President Trump’s physician Sean Conley confirmed in a letter that Trump is taking hydroxychloroquine without having COVID-19 because “the potential benefit from the treatment outweighed the relative risks.”
The letter did not include when he began taking the drug or what the dosage is.
“In consultation with our inter-agency partners and subject matter experts around the country, I continue to monitor the myriad studies investigating potential COVID-19 therapies, and I anticipate employing the same shared medical decision making based on the evidence at hand in the future,” Conley wrote.