White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro insists hydroxychloroquine is a better treatment for coronavirus than remdesivir.
Navarro appeared on CNN with host Jim Scuitto on Monday where he dismissed Adm. Brett Giroir’s remarks reiterating the ineffectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating coronavirus patients.
“I take exception to Giroir’s analysis. He hasn’t looked at the data within the last two weeks,” Navarro said.
He later added, “My view of this now is doctor’s opinions are a dime a dozen and you’ve got some doctors who say it doesn’t work. You’ve got some doctors who say it does.”
Scuitto went on to ask Navarro why not focus on treatments that have shown to be effective for coronavirus. Navarro responded with another claim in support of hydroxychloroquine. While he claimed the study appeared in a publication, he never specified which journal the study appears in.
Navarro said, “Actually, a study that came out just last week showed that hydroxychloroquine works better than remdesivir. You can check that out in the journal in which it appears. My views on [hydroxychloroquine] are well-known.”
See Navarro’s remarks below:
Peter Navarro floats the claim that "Hydroxychloroquine works better than Remdesivir." pic.twitter.com/ChDsAlKjmR
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 3, 2020
Navarro’s latest remarks follow a string of comments he has made touting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus — though there is a lack of medical evidence proving it. Last Thursday, Navarro clashed with CNN’s John Berman on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus.
During the intense exchange, Navarro suggested that he is “sitting on” millions of doses of the drug.
In fact, Giroir — a White House coronavirus task force member — has also doubled down on his opposition to the drug saying, “So, at this point in time, we don’t recommend that as a treatment. There’s no evidence to show that it is.”
“I think most physicians and prescribers are evidence-based and they’re not influenced by whatever is on Twitter or anything else,” Giroir said. “And the evidence just doesn’t show that hydroxychloroquine is effective right now.”
