White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday touted hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, as a potential therapeutic and preventive drug amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“Basically, what I have said and the only thing I have said is that the scientific studies that I have seen point to the possibility that it has both therapeutic efficacy as well as possible prophylactic efficacy,” Mr. Navarro said on CNN.
“This is a situation where this drug could save lives, and I think there needs to be a debate,” he said.
Mr. Navarro’s comments came days after a heated discussion in the White House Situation Room where he had made a similar pitch for the drug.
President Trump has talked up its potential benefits as well, while Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has been among those cautioning against drawing definitive conclusions.
“I agree with the analysis of Dr. Fauci in this sense — we don’t have definitive, a hundred percent science to say that this absolutely works and we don’t know what degree that it does work,” Mr. Navarro said.
“That’s not inconsistent with the idea of using it, as they do in all 11 hospitals in the New York health and hospital system, as a therapeutic at this time when we are in, basically at war with [the] virus,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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