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Chief US virus researcher Dr. Anthony Fauci called the fact that President Donald Trump shared a video that included claims that no masks are needed to fight Covid-19 “not useful.”
The video promotes a drug widely refuted to be effective in treating Covid-19.
Dr. Fauci’s interview with the BBC’s Katty Kay comes as the United States is nearing 150,000 deaths from the pandemic.
The virus continues to spread rapidly in the United States as states close again.
President Trump was one of the social media users who shared videos on social media on Monday night from a group called Frontline Doctors of the United States who advocated hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment and said that masks and closures are not effective in combating the coronavirus.
Facebook and Twitter removed the video, marking it as misinformation, but not before more than 17 million people had seen it.
The speaker in the video also alleged that there was a conspiracy to prevent the world from learning of a coronavirus “cure” that was being led “by Fauci and the Democrats to perpetuate Covid’s deaths to hurt Trump.” On Tuesday, Dr. Fauci denied “deceiving the American public under any circumstances.”
What did Dr. Fauci say?
“This topic of tweeting and retweeting is something that I have never understood or been involved in,” Dr. Fauci told BBC News on Wednesday.
“But I can tell you that you would have to say that it is not helpful if people are getting signals not to wear masks when we are trying to make people wear masks universally.”
“My opinion on what we should do with the masks is very clear to everyone, including those in the White House,” added Dr. Fauci, who is part of the White House coronavirus working group and has led the National Institute of U.S. Allergies and Infectious Diseases since 1984
When asked about Trump’s promotion of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that Trump himself says he took to protect himself from the virus, Dr. Fauci said it would not be “productive or helpful for me to be a judge.” [sic] right or wrong “.
“We know that every good study, and by good study, I mean a randomized control study in which the data is firm and credible, has shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating Covid-19,” he said.
- Why was a video promoted by Trump released on social media
- What do we know about hydroxychloroquine?
Last month, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned against using the drug to treat patients with coronavirus, following reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” and other health problems.
Studies commissioned by the WHO, the US National Institutes of Health, and other researchers around the world have found no evidence that hydroxychloroquine, when used with or without the antibiotic azithromycin, as repeatedly recommended by President Trump , help treat coronavirus.
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‘Red zone’
A July 26 report by the White House coronavirus task force identified 21 states as being in the “red zone,” meaning they had reported more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents last week.
Twenty-eight states are in the “yellow zone”. Vermont is the only state in green, with less than 10 cases per 100,000 people in the past week.
The report calls for more closings by state governors to contain the spread of the outbreak.
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Cure for COVID-19 ‘
The video retweeted by Trump showed doctors speaking outside the U.S. Supreme Court building at an event hosted by Tea Party Patriots Action, a group that has helped fund a pro-Trump political action committee.
In the video, Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston doctor, says that she has successfully treated 350 patients with coronavirus “and that she has” hydroxychloroquine.
The president said Tuesday: “I think they are highly respected doctors. There was one woman who was spectacular in her statements on the matter.”
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According to the Daily Beast, Dr. Immanuel previously stated that the government is run by “reptilians” and that scientists are developing a vaccine to prevent people from being religious, among other strange views.
United States Frontline Doctors founder Simone Gold accused social media companies of censorship for removing the hydroxychloroquine video.
“Treatment options for COVID-19 should be discussed and discussed among our colleagues in the medical field,” he tweeted. “However, they should never be censored and silenced.”
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How is Trump’s relationship with Dr. Fauci?
Late Monday, Trump also retweeted several critical tweets with Dr. Fauci. But in Tuesday’s briefing, the president denied criticizing the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, insisting: “I get along very well with him.”
But he criticized the great popularity of Dr. Fauci, and told reporters “No one liked me.”
“He has this high approval rating, so why don’t I have a high approval rating … regarding the virus?” I ask.
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The United States now has more than 4.3 million reported cases of Covid-19.
