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Trump speaks during press briefing with the coronavirus task force, at the White House. Evan Vucci/PA Images

Donald Trump says treatment 'is not gonna kill anybody' as US fast-tracks use of anti-malarial drug for coronavirus

US President Donald Trump made the announcement this afternoon.

THE US IS fast-tracking anti-malarial drug chloroquine for use as a treatment against the new coronavirus, President Donald Trump said this afternoon.

“We’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately, and that’s where the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has been so great,” Trump told reporters.

“They’ve gone through the approval process — it’s been approved. They took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription.”

Chloroquine is the synthetic form of quinine and is used to treat malaria and it’s believed that it may have some properties that fight the virus.

“This is a common malaria drug, it’s also a drug used for strong arthritis, if somebody has pretty serious arthritis. But it is known as a malaria drug and it’s been around for a long time and it’s very powerful, ” Trump said. 

“The nice thing is it’s been around for a long time so if things don’t go as planned then it’s not gonna kill anybody, if you go with a new drug you don’t know that that’s gonna happen, ” Trump added. 

But despite Trump saying the drug has been approved for use against coronavirus, FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said that this was not the case. 

Hahn indicated that, while the drug has not yet been formally approved, access to it was being expanded so that authorities could gather more data.

This is known as “compassionate use.”

“If there is an experimental drug that is potentially available, a doctor could ask for that drug to be used in a patient. We have criteria for that and very speedy approval for that,” said Hahn.

As an example, many Americans have read studies and heard media reports about this drug chloroquine, which is an anti-malarial drug. It’s already approved, as the president said, for the treatment of malaria as well as an arthritis condition.

Pharmaceutical and research labs across the world are racing to find vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus Covid-19, using a variety of different technologies.

Treatment could come sooner than a vaccine, with antiviral drug remdesivir – which was originally developed by Gilead Sciences as a treatment for Ebola virus – showing early promise and already being used on an ad-hoc basis before regulatory approval in the EU.

It is believed a viable vaccine that can be tested and scaled up for widespread use could be between a year to 18 months away.  

At today’s briefing, Trump referred to Covid-19 as “the Chinese virus” and said that “clinical trials are underway for many therapies”.

With reporting by © – AFP 2020 

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    Mute Ziggy722
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:41 AM

    They are already talking about using this technology to cure phobias like speaking in public and other more general forms of social anxiety. The possibilities with this technology are immense and positively exciting.

    145
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    Mute Teddington
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:23 PM

    More likely people will use them to escape social situations as we veer further towards a fully virtual society.

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    Mute Insert funny comment
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    Mar 30th 2016, 8:22 PM

    Porn, it’s going to be used for porn. Same as the Internet.

    41
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    Mute Gooney
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:46 AM

    FFS get a grip,that was pure shite!

    86
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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:41 AM

    Jasus The Journal has gone downhill if this is considered newsworthy

    71
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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:47 AM

    They’ve always peddled fluff alongside the more pressing issues. Room for them both

    36
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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:59 AM

    Every weekday at 11am we have Take a Break, it’s generally a lighter video like this. We have about 60+ articles a day, so there’s plenty to read that isn’t like this.

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:35 PM

    Great, now look what you’ve done Cosmo. Hope you’re happy.
    Pass no heed aoife you’re doing a sterling job. Snapchat hun?

    38
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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:48 PM

    Yes but not every video with an “Irish Mammy” is funny

    29
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    Mute Paige Turners
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:59 PM

    I like the Journals work @Aoife. Never mind the bugrudgers! I think it’s a great video. .. shows how accessible it is. The Irish mammy dropping f-bombs is classic!!

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    Mute Brian
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:33 PM

    Nothing to do with begrudging, it’s just my opinion and many others that it is cringeworthy and not remotely funny. Journal can do much better than this

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    Mute Chewy_Burton
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:38 AM

    Yawn

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    Mute GameOverMan
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:46 AM

    Was expecting more ‘

    52
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    Mute J Judd
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:05 PM

    FFS Filming in portrait !

    42
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    Mute OU812
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:18 PM

    You’d think they’d make the cameras not record video in portrait by this stage…

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    Mute graham galvin
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    Mar 30th 2016, 6:05 PM

    Or you would think people would know to record with their phone sideways by now.

    9
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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:15 PM

    Was only a matter of time before these videos arrived.

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    Mute Slew Lok
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:26 PM

    I wonder what she was watching

    9
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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:32 PM

    It’s the jurassic Park clip. A sleeping bronctosauaus wakes up and comes over to you. It’s really cool

    16
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    Mute Peter Mc Hugh
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:06 PM

    Why is the footage warping at sections around the womans body?

    8
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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:41 PM

    Illuminati and or NWO, with a possibility of lizard people shapeshifting

    14
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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:12 PM
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    Mute Tertullian
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    Mar 30th 2016, 7:23 PM

    That’s nearly two minutes of my life wasted. On the plus side, at least she didn’t pepper the entire video with multiple effing and blinding which, unfortunately, one has come to expect from such Irish-made videos. But for gawd’s sake, why can’t the makers of them use landscape mode?

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Mar 30th 2016, 4:12 PM

    That looked like me coming home from the pub last night.

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:02 PM

    Have a look at that wine rack in the background, packed!! Bit early in the day to be drinking!

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    Mute itsonlyme
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:42 PM

    Are those the 30€ dunnes headsets?

    3
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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:56 PM

    Gear VR

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:59 AM

    That kitchen looks a bit dated!

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:47 PM

    Billy big balls cause he has an island in his

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:01 PM

    I think this is an advert…

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:00 PM

    This pornos great…

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Mar 30th 2016, 4:18 PM
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    Mute Jim Woodcock
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    Mar 30th 2016, 10:16 PM

    Can’t wait to play knockout kings on this so I can finally win a fight.

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