The Nigerian Center for Disease Control had to issue a warning late last week to remind people that the World Health Organization had “not approved the use of chloroquine for #COVID19 management. Scientists are working hard to confirm the safety of several drugs for this disease.”
“Please DO NOT engage in self-medication. This will cause harm and can lead to death,” the center added in a tweet.
Dr. Oreoluwa Finnih, a senior special assistant on health at the Lagos State government said hospitals in the Nigerian capital were now reporting admissions from people suspected of having chloroquine poisoning, though he didn’t give exact numbers.
Last Thursday Trump touted the malaria drug as a “game-changer” in the fight against coronavirus, even though Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has been leading government efforts to fight the disease, warned against calling the drug “fairly effective” because it hasn’t been tested in a clinical trial as a treatment for COVID-19.
But Trump dismissed Fauci’s concerns and over the weekend continued to push chloroquine as a cure.
“This would be a gift from heaven. This would be a gift from God if it works. So we’re gonna pray to God that it does work,” Trump said at a press conference on Saturday, adding that his administration plans to ship 10,000 doses of it to New York state to test it out.
He also tweeted about the drug over the weekend.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pushed back against Trump’s claims about chloroquine. The commissioner of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, contradicted the president, saying chloroquine “was undergoing clinical testing in order to gauge its effectiveness.”
