Last night, at his daily coronavirus press briefing, President Trump revealed that the federal government had stockpiled 29 million doses of Hydroxychloroquine.

Here’s a portion of the transcript from his briefing:

We bought a tremendous amount of is the hydroxychloroquine — hydroxychloroquine — which I think — as you know, it’s a great malaria drug.  It’s worked unbelievably.  It’s this powerful drug on malaria.  And there are signs that it works on this.  Some very strong signs.  And, in the meantime, it’s been around a long time.  It also works very powerfully on lupus.  Lupus.

So there are some very strong, powerful signs, and we’ll have to see.  Because again, it’s being tested now.  This is a new thing that just happened to us — the “invisible enemy,” we call it.

And, if you can, if you have a — no signs of heart problems, the azrithromycin [sic] — azithromycin — which will kill certain things that you don’t want living within your body — it’s powerful drug — if you don’t have a problem, a heart problem, we would say: Let your doctor think about it.  But as a combination, I think they’re going to be — I think they’re two things that should be looked at very strongly.

Now, we have purchased and we have stockpiled 29 million pills of the hydroxychloroquine — 29 million.  A lot of drugstores have them by prescription, and also — and they’re not expensive.  Also, we’re sending them to various labs, our military.  We’re sending them to the hospitals.  We’re sending them all over.

I just think it’s something — you know the expression, I’ve used it for certain reasons: “What do you have to lose?”  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.”

I’m not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this.  If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early.  But we have some very good signs.  So that’s hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

And, again, you have to go through your medical people, get the approval.  But I’ve seen things that I sort of like.  So what do I know?  I’m not a doctor.  I’m not a doctor.  But I have common sense.  The FDA feels good about it.  They’ve — as you know, they’ve approved it.  They gave it a rapid approval.  And the reason: because it’s been out there for a long time and they know the side effects and they also know the potential.  So, based on that, we have sent it throughout the country and we have it stockpiled — about 29 million doses.  Twenty-nine million doses.  We have a lot of it.  We hope it works.

Are 29 million doses enough hydroxychloroquine to help prevent and cure the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the United States?

Last week, India threatened to ban the shipment of hydroxychloroquine to the United States.  This afternoon, India announced they would be sending hydroxychloroquine after President Trump threatened them with retaliation if they refused to send the potentially life-saving drug to the United States.

ANI shared a quote from President Trump:

I spoke to him (PM Modi), Sunday morning & I said we appreciate it that you are allowing our supply (of Hydroxychloroquine) to come out, if he doesn’t allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course, there may be retaliation, why wouldn’t there be?

The BBC reports that India has now agreed to lift an export ban on a drug US President Donald Trump has called a “game-changer” in the fight against coronavirus, despite reservations from medical experts.

The decision came after Mr. Trump warned of “retaliation” if India did not drop the ban on hydroxychloroquine exports.

India is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of hydroxychloroquine.

In times of crisis, it’s comforting to know we have a commander in chief with a spine.

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