Without Evidence, Trump Says Michigan Woman Was Cured Of COVID-19 With Hydroxychloroquine

President Donald Trump told a story of a Michigan woman who he says was cured of the coronavirus with hydroxychloroquine on Tuesday, without evidence that the drug actually works. 

At his daily White House press conference, Trump said, “She was just in horrible shape for 12 days, 14 days. She thought she was dead.”

The president said that once her husband brought her the drug, “Four hours later, she awoke and she said, I feel better. And then, shortly thereafter, she felt great.”

“The way she spoke,” Trump said, “it was like a miracle. And this was not a fan of mine, but she’s a fan of mine now.”

Trump persisted that although the drug doesn’t always have this result, he believes that the medical community should not wait for scientific evidence that a drug is effective. 

“We got people dying in this country and all over the world right now, not in a couple of years,” he said.

The drug Trump has been promoting as a cure for the coronavirus, however, has severe side effects that include but aren’t limited to eye and heart damage. Despite this, there are a variety of holes in Trump’s story. 

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For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the virus runs its course for about 10 to 13 days. If the Michigan woman was ill for “12 days, 14 days,” as the president claims, there’s a good chance she was already getting better without the drug. Without controlled clinical trials, it’s hard to say what actually happened.