THREAD: In this 2-min clip from last night, Trump made five (!) false and misleading claims about hydroxychloroquine. Bottom line: He's still totally out of step with the science. Too much material for one tweet, so I'll make a thread. CNN fact-check --> cnn.com/2020/05/03/pol…
1) Asked about studies that found cardiac side effects in Covid-19 patients, Trump falsely said it was only "one study." A handful of studies found similarly problematic or unhelpful results — in Brazil, France, veterans' hospitals in the US and a large study of patients in NY.
2) Trump says, "there were studies that came out that say it's very good." But he isn't telling the full story. Some tiny, early trials found positive results. But the most influential one wasn't a randomized trial, and the publisher now says the trial didn't meet its standards.
3) Trump said he recently got "three calls" from people that give HCQ "credit for saving their lives." It's good news when anyone gets better, but these are just anecdotes from some of the 1.1m Americans with Covid. They don't carry the same weight as actual scientific evidence.
4) By saying, "we don't lose anything with hydroxy," Trump is whitewashing the fallout from his dogged promotion of the drugs back in March/April. CNN has reported that his comments led to shortages for chronically ill Americans who have relied on this particular drug for years.
5) By saying "people aren't dying" by trying HCQ, Trump is falsely implying that we know the drugs are safe for Covid. This isn't accurate. The FDA gave hospitals emergency authority to use the drug, but issued warnings about deadly side effects. (One trial stopped after deaths.)
None of these false claims are particularly new for Trump. Here is our coverage from a few weeks ago. cnn.com/2020/04/01/pol…
