Donald Trump just made “Dr.” Laura Ingraham’s day when he told reporters he’s taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus. If true, there’s every reason for anyone who cares about him (assuming there is such a person) to be concerned.

Earlier today, we posted about growing calls by medical and public health experts for the federal government to further discourage use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID. It was based on recent Washington Post reporting:

Clinical trials, academic research and scientific analysis indicate that the danger of the Trump-backed drug is a significantly increased risk of death for certain patients. Evidence showing the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating covid-19 has been scant. Those two developments pushed the Food and Drug Administration to warn against the use of hydroxychloroquine outside of a hospital setting last month, just weeks after it approved an emergency use authorization for the drug.

Alarmed by a growing cache of data linking the anti-malaria drug to serious cardiac problems, some drug safety experts are now calling for even more forceful action by the government to discourage its use. Several have called for the FDA to revoke its emergency use authorization, given hydroxychloroquine’s documented risks.

We noted that Trump was likely to ignore the calls because he thinks he knows better.

Well, this afternoon, Trump upped the ante on his amateur coronavirus management and outright hawked the drug during a roundtable with restaurant executives.

TRUMP: A lot of good things have come out about the hydroxy, a lot of good things have come out. You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the frontline workers, before you catch it. The frontline workers - many, many are taking it. I happen to be taking it. I happen to be taking it. … A couple of weeks ago, started taking it … cause I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories.

And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you right. I’m not gonna get hurt by it. It’s been around for 40 years, for malaria, for lupus, for other things.  …. I hope to not be able to take it soon because, you know, I hope they come up with some answer.

As Axios noted, there’s no substantiated evidence that taking hydroxychloroquine prevents COVID-19 infections.

Personally, I don’t believe a thing Trump says about anything. But, sadly, his fans might start taking the drug in the hope that they can ignore steps to protect themselves and others from spreading the virus, illness and death even further.

Fox News pretty much stopped touting hydroxychloroquine, right around the time Trump stopped. But Ingraham seems never to have lost faith. Maybe they’ll all start hawking it again, for others, while they continue to work from home.

You can watch Trump act like he has a financial stake in hydroxychloroqune or maybe has contracted coronavirus and is pretending otherwise below, via The Washington Post.