WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump said Monday that he is taking hydroxychloroquine, after consulting with the White House physician about the drug, which is approved for treating malaria and lupus but has not been proven as a treatment for the coronavirus.
Trump told reporters during a meeting with restaurant executives that he has had "zero symptoms" of COVID-19 and has always tested negative for the disease. But he said he decided, "what do you have to lose?" and began taking hydroxychloroquine.
For weeks since the United States locked down due to the pandemic, Trump has publicly advocated that people severely ill from the coronavirus take the drug.
"I happen to be taking it. I'm taking it, hydroxychloroquine," the president said Monday. "I've taken it for about a week and a half now. I'm still here," he said at the roundtable. "I take a pill every day."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns on its website that hydroxychloroquine has "not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19" and can cause heart rhythm problems. The federal agency has approved the drug for use in hospitalized coronavirus patients temporarily while clinical trials are conducted to determine whether the drug is safe and effective for treating the illness.
Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, physician to the president, in a short memo on Monday evening said Trump remains "symptom-free" and receives "regular" coronavirus tests, which have all been negative.
"After numerous discussions he and I had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks," Conley wrote.
He did not say that the president was taking hydroxychloroquine or provide any details about dosage. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Trump's timeline for taking the drug coincides with two known cases of COVID-19 at the White House. The president's valet tested positive for the coronavirus, followed by Vice President Mike Pence's spokeswoman, Katie Miller, who also tested positive.
After Miller contracted the virus, White House officials told McClatchy that Pence would distance himself from Trump and the West Wing for the near future. The vice president was seen at the White House with the president for the first time in more than a week Monday at the afternoon event for restaurant executives.
Trump said he was not aware of anyone else in his family, or Pence, taking the drug, telling a reporter, "No, but I wouldn't be surprised."
"Many front-line workers take it, and they seem to be doing very well," he stated. It was not immediately clear where that information came from that the president cited.
Trump said that he also takes zinc as a precaution and took "an original dose" of the antibiotic azithromycin, a drug that is part of a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to determine whether it prevents hospitalization and death from COVID-19 when taken together with hydroxychloroquine.
"You don't have to take it simultaneously, but the zinc you do take. So I'm taking the two: the zinc and the hydroxy. And all I can tell you is, so far, I seem to be OK."
