#HHS #hydroxychloroquine #quackery
"Steven J. Hatfill, a virologist and White House adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term who pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus despite what most researchers said was a lack of scientific evidence, has joined the second Trump administration in a senior role at the Department of Health and Human Services.
(. . .)
Hatfill criticized coverage in The Washington Post and other publications of a study by Veterans Affairs researchers of 368 patients — all male with a median age over 65 — hospitalized with coronavirus infections. The study found no evidence that hydroxychloroquine reduced patients’ chances of being placed on a mechanical ventilator and that the drug was associated with 'increased overall mortality.'
A research trial by Brazilian scientists was halted early for safety reasons after patients taking a relatively high dose of chloroquine developed irregular heart rates that increased their risk of a potentially fatal heart arrhythmia. Repeating what many advocates of the drug have argued, Hatfill said it was given in late stages of the virus. Patients were dying from other diseases but 'they blamed the drug,' he said."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/04/hatfill-covid-hydroxychloroquine-anthrax/