An NIH panel says that doctors shouldn't use hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat COVID-19 — a combination that President Trump has repeatedly suggested might be helpful.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of President Trump's coronavirus task force, directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which had convened the panel of experts.Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
"I think it's not a bad idea to do it, but that's up to the doctors," Trump said March 31 before adding the caveat,"It's going to have to be proven. It's very early.""What do you have to lose? And a lot of people are saying that when — and are taking it — if you're a doctor, a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good. But what do you have to lose? They say, 'Take it.
But occasionally, there are recommendations explicitly against certain therapies. For example, the panel recommended against using Lopinavir/ritonavir or other HIV protease inhibitors because of negative clinical trial data. It also recommended against using interferon because it seemed to make patients with SARS and MERS worse. Those diseases are caused by a coronavirus related to the one causing COVID-19.
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