Chris Cuomo took ‘less safe version’ of hydroxychloroquine, McEnany says
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany took on Chris Cuomo on Wednesday, saying that while he “mocked” President Trump for taking hydroxychloroquine, the CNN anchor took a less safe version of the drug himself.
“You had Chris Cuomo saying the president knows that hydroxychloroquine is not supported by science, he knows it has been flagged by his own people and he’s using it,” McEnany said at a White House press briefing.
“Cuomo mocked the president for this” but “it turns out that Chris Cuomo took a less safe version of it called quinine, which the FDA removed from the market in 2006 because it had serious side effects, including death. So really interesting to have that criticism of the president.”
The CNN host’s wife, Cristina Cuomo, who also came down with coronavirus, detailed his daily health regimen to treat COVID-19 in an article for her wellness publication Purist.
She wrote that his daily intake included “Potentized quinine (OXO); it’s derived from the nontoxic bark of Peruvian-grown quinine plants. It is a natural antibiotic (it’s being used in India with very good results). This is not on the market here; Dr. Lancaster has made this in her lab for 40 years, and I took this for my Lyme. (The medicine Plaquinol, which many doctors are using for COVID-19 is similar to quinine, but it has negative side effects.)”
By contrast, McEnany said, hydroxychloroquine is “a drug that has been in use for 65 years for lupus, arthritis and malaria. It has a very good safety profile.” Trump disclosed Monday that he’s taking the drug to protect against contracting COVID-19. He previously touted anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness.
A medication guide posted on the FDA’s website says the drug quinine sulfate “may cause problems with your heart rhythm that can lead to death” and “may cause your blood cell (platelet) count to drop causing serious bleeding problems. In some people, serious kidney problems can happen.”
In 2006, the FDA warned against off-label use of the drug to treat leg cramps, writing, “Fatalities and renal insufficiency requiring hemodialysis have been reported.”
McEnany defended Trump’s use of the fellow anti-malaria drug.
“No one should be taking this without a prescription from their doctor, but that being said, I’ve seen a lot of apoplectic coverage of hydroxychloroquine. You had Jimmy Kimmel saying the president’s ‘trying to kill himself’ by taking it, you had Joe Scarborough saying, ‘This will kill you.’ Neil Cavuto saying, ‘What have you got to lose? One thing you have to lose are lives,’ ” she said.
A Brazilian study of the effectiveness of a related drug, chloroquine, ended early in April after determining that high doses of the drug caused heart problems.
On Monday night, Chris Cuomo questioned whether Trump truly was taking hydroxychloroquine, saying he believed it was “a beautiful distraction” that “speaks to optimism” about reopening the country.
But McEnany countered that Chris Cuomo’s brother, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, “has several on-the-record statements about hydroxychloroquine,” including that “I’m an optimist, I’m hopeful about the drug and that’s why we’ll try it here in New York.”