Trump's touted "miracle drug" linked to thousands of excess Covid deaths
Washington DC - A new study has found thousands of people died from taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which Donald Trump touted as a "miracle drug" to treat coronavirus.
A study recently published by French researchers claims an estimated 16,990 died as a result of being prescribed HCQ, an anti-malaria drug, in six different countries during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic - France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the US.
The majority of deaths took place in the US, where 12,739 people died. Researchers also noted that because only six countries were surveyed, the actual number of deaths worldwide could be between 3,000 and 30,000.
When the Covid pandemic kicked off in early 2020, shutting down most of the world while leaving society riddled with fear and anxiety, experts scrambled to find a solution.
One leader rose to the occasion, claiming to not only know the origins of the virus, but how to fix it - then US President Donald Trump.
Trump pushed a number of unfounded treatments and cures, such as drinking bleach to kill the virus. He was also adamant about pushing HCQ, despite health experts at the time warning against it.
In May 2022, Trump reportedly shared that he was regularly taking HCQ as a preventative measure, and pushed others to take it, asking, "What do you have to lose?"
In a resurfaced clip from April 2020, Trump said in a White House briefing, "try it... You're not going to die from this pill."
Donald Trump during the Covid pandemic
According to Newsweek, there were some studies at the time Trump made his claims that reported benefits to taking the drug, but did not find links to treating Covid specifically.
Despite this, the Food and Drug Administration enacted an emergency use authorization for the drug in March 2020, only to rescind it in June after the New England Journal of Medicine found it had no benefit in treating the virus, and posed a significant increase in risk of death.
Trump went on to sow doubt in the American public about the threat of the virus, the efficacy of vaccines, and publicly refused to wear masks after reportedly realizing it smeared his bronzer makeup.
The study goes on to argue the findings "illustrate the hazard of drug repurposing with low-level evidence for the management of future pandemics."
Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire