United States President Donald Trump has befriended controversy again after he revealed he has been taking Hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19.
Trump made the revelation at the White House on Monday, May 18 while addressing reporters.
The Leader of the free world disclosed he began taking Hydroxychloroquine as a preventative against the novel Coronavirus after consulting with White House Doctor.
According to President Trump, this was not a new practice as many frontline healthcare workers have also been administering the drug to avoid contraction of the virus which has killed over 89,000 Americans.
HydroxyChloroquine, known for treating malaria has been theorized to be a possible cure for COVID-19 due to its anti-inflammatory properties by some Scientists.
However, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not support this theory after they linked the drug to be a possible cause of serious heart problems.
Trump who began administering HydroxyChloroquine about a week and half ago has tested negative to the virus on several occasions.
This is coming after two White House staff Katie Miller and her husband Stephen Miller tested positive to COVID-19 according to a report by Wall Street Journal.
Security measures tightened at the White House after Stephen Miller who works closely with President Trump and his Vice, Mike Pence tested positive to the novel virus
Medical experts such as William Schaffner of the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville said HydroxyChloroquine was a speculative treatment for COVID-19, hence should not be administered by citizens.
Wall Street Journal quoted Schaffner saying, ” I certainly would not recommend that people in the U.S. ask their physicians to prescribe hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of Covid,” because “Its use is entirely speculative.”
It would be recalled that President Trump who isn’t a stranger to controversy caught the attention of Lysol (manufacturers of Dettol disinfectant) after he said that the ingestion of disinfectant could prevent the deadly virus.
Lysol issued a public statement dissociating their brand from President Trump’s comment.
Although Trump claimed it was a sarcastic remark, his long time friend and Daily Mail columnist, Piers Morgan minced no words in lambasting him in an article titled “Shut the f*CK up”
According to Piers Morgan, hospitals recorded many distress calls from citizens seeking to verify the safety of ingesting disinfectant to prevent COVID-19.