(USA Features) Attorney General William Barr said Thursday it appears as though much of the U.S. media is attempting to discredit antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which in some studies has shown to be a promising coronavirus treatment because President Trump has suggested it could help.
“Before the president said anything about it, there was fair and balanced coverage of this very promising drug and the fact that it had such a long track record, and soon as [President Trump] said something positive about it the media has been on a jihad to discredit this drug,” Barr said in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingharam. “It’s quite strange.”
The president has pushed federal health officials to make hydroxycholorquine more widely available for use as a COVID-19 treatment, while many in the media have suggested that there’s little evidence it is effected.
Trump himself has said, however, that he “make take” the drug, which has long been used as a treatment for malaria but which has also been cleared for some uses in treating coronavirus, thanks to an emergency order from the Food and Drug Administration late last month.
The president’s chief coronavirus health adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has also said there is no “definitive” evidence the drug works to treat the virus, which has been picked up by the media and used by the media in an attempt to harm Trump, Barr noted.
“I think the president went out at the beginning of this thing and was statesman-like — trying to bring people together, trying to work with all the governors, keeping his patience as he got these snarky gotcha questions from the White House media pool — and the stridency of the partisan attacks on him has gotten higher and higher and it’s disappointing to see,” he said.
“The stridency of the partisan attacks and the politicization of hydroxychloroquine has been amazing to me,” he said.