Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s endorsement of a viral video with marginal doctors, including one who believes in demon sperm and “alien DNA,” which pampers disinformation. of the coronavirus, saying that the only “recourse” is to be “very clear in presenting the scientific data that essentially contradicts it.”
In recent days, the president has repeatedly praised a group of doctors, backed by the right-wing political group Tea Party Patriots, who claim that the controversial hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for coronaviruses and that the masks are unnecessary. The video of the “summit” of doctors, presented by the far-right digital media Breitbart, was eventually removed from social media platforms for driving dangerous dangerous misinformation from COVID-19, prompting conservative screams of censorship.
Appearing on MSNBC for the first time since April, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Andrea Mitchell, asked director Andrea Mitchell how “harmful” was Trump’s endorsement of hydroxychloroquine, considering that the FDA terminated its emergency use. for the treatment of coronavirus due to concerns about possible deaths. side effects.
“The only thing I can do, Andrea, is to do what I have done all the time, consistently, is to look at the scientific data and the evidence,” Fauci replied. “And the scientific data, the cumulative data from the trials, the clinical trials that were valid, that is, the clinical trials that were properly randomized and controlled, all of those trials consistently showed that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treatment of coronavirus disease or COVID -19 “.
Mitchell said a family friend currently in Kenya told her that residents of that country are now asking “if there is a cure” after watching the video.
“Now I see in the Kenyan newspapers column warnings to tell people that they don’t believe the video,” he added. “If this can be spread across the country, and around the world, so quickly, don’t we have to do more to prevent these dangerous conspiracies from misleading people?”
Fauci, who was roundly attacked in the video, agreed with Mitchell and said he had been “Very explicit and unequivocal” in telling the public that they need to “follow the science” with the pandemic. He also reiterated that “cumulative scientific data” has shown that hydroxychloroquine is ineffective in the treatment of COVID-19.
“So when there is a video of a group of people saying something that is not true, the only recourse you have is to be very, very clear in presenting the scientific data that essentially contradicts it,” Fauci concluded, directly reprimanding video.
After allegedly adopting a serious new tone towards the virus that has killed nearly 150,000 Americans, the president repeatedly shared the video and Fauci’s criticism on Twitter on Monday night. When faced Tuesday with the strange claims made by Dr. Stella Immanuel, one of the doctors in the video, Trump said she was “very impressive” and “spectacular.”
“I don’t know which country he comes from, but he said he has had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients, and I thought his voice was an important voice, but I don’t know anything about it,” added the president before breaking off his wheel of coronavirus press.
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