Appearing Tuesday on Philadelphia’s AM 990 The Answer Radio, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he would certainly prescribe Chloroquine to coronavirus-stricken patients in the wake of testimonies stating it could treat the deadly disease.
(Listen from 52:20)
A partial transcript is as follows:
CHRIS STIGALL:If you’re a doctor listening to me right now and a patient with coronavirus feels like they want to try [Chloroquine] and you’re their doctor, you’re not Anthony Fauci the guy running the coronavirus task force, would you say ‘alright, we’ll give it a whirl’?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Yeah, of course, particularly if people have no other option. You want to give them hope. In fact, for physicians in this country, these drugs are approved drugs for other reasons. They’re anti-malaria drugs and they’re drugs against certain autoimmune diseases, like lupus. Physicians throughout the country can prescribe that in an off-label way. Which means they can write it for something it was not originally approved for. People do that all the time, and it really is an individual choice between the physician and his or her patient as to whether or not they want to do that.
Despite Fauci’s remarks, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) signed an emergency hours later order banning the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
[H/T Townhall’s Larry O’Connor]