Shortly after announcing he had been infected with Covid-19, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro posted a video on his Facebook page that appears to show him taking a dose of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that has been dropped by health organizations after studies found evidence of it being both ineffective in treating the virus and having dangerous side effects.
Bolsonaro is taking controversial malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat his Covid-19 case. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The dosage in Tuesday’s video was Bolsonaro’s third time taking hydroxychloroquine, according to the Associated Press, and the president said he believes the drug has already stopped his high temperature, one of the Covid-19 symptoms he was experiencing. “Today I’m a lot better, so certainly it’s working,” Bolsonaro said, according to an AP translation of the video posted to Facebook. The World Health Organization announced on Saturday it would end a trial for hydroxychloroquine (along with HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir) after researchers saw “little or no reduction” of hospitalized Covid-19 patients’ mortality rates. The FDA withdrew its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in June, saying the risk of side effects outweighs possible benefits of taking the drugs to treat Covid-19. But the same day the FDA announced its reversal, Brazil’s health ministry said it would endorse hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 remedy for pregnant women and children, according to CNN, with Health Ministry official Mayra Pinheiro quoted as saying “the studies referenced by the FDA today cannot be used as examples for Brazil or for the rest of the world.” Bolsonaro sacked former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta in April, partly because the two disagreed on using the drug as a Covid-19 treatment, Reuters reported, and Mandetta’s successor Nelson Teich resigned less than a month later after Bolsonaro pressured him to promote the drug, according to CNBC.
“We know today there are other remedies that can help fight the coronavirus. We know none of them have their efficacy scientifically proven, but I’m one more person for whom this is working. So I trust hydroxychloroquine,” AP quoted Bolsonaro as saying.
Brazil is facing one of the world’s worst Covid-outbreaks, with Johns Hopkins University reporting 1,668,589 confirmed cases and 66,741 deaths attributed to the virus, second only to the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump, like Bolsonaro, has also spoken highly of hydroxychloroquine and said he has taken the drug himself. Both presidents have also downplayed the pandemic and railed against social distancing measures in the name of the economy.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Tests Positive For Covid-19 (Forbes)
Hydroxychloroquine Knocked Again: WHO Shuts Down Trials For It, HIV Drug As Coronavirus Treatments (Forbes)
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f3nnies on July 8th, 2020 at 20:33 UTC »
"This disease is not real, but also if it is real it isn't dangerous, but also I will treat it even though it can't hurt anyone, but also I will use a medication to treat this not dangerous disease that actually is known to hurt people with this disease."
kowcop on July 8th, 2020 at 20:28 UTC »
Part of me thinks he doesn’t even have it so he can make a remarkable recover, and then make wild statements about how he was right
May_I_inquire on July 8th, 2020 at 20:02 UTC »
All my life I never thought I was smart enough to get too far in the world. I never wanted to run for office or higher tiered things, because I always thought to myself, I'm just not that smart. And here are these jackasses in charge of huge countries that appear to be less smarter than me (someone who didn't even graduate college) How can it be people who appear dumber than myself are allowed to run entire countries?