Another day, another surreal moment in the world of President Trump, who today defended the doctor whose claimed that hydroxychloroquine is a ‘cure’ for coronavirus after her videos were removed by Twitter and resulted in his son’s account being suspended.
Dr. Stella Immanuel has a long history of supporting conspiracy theories, and Trump ended his press conference when pressed about his own retweets of her claims about hydroxy.
‘She was on air along with many other doctors,’ he said. ‘They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine. And I thought she was very impressive in the sense that from where she came – I don’t know which country she comes from – but she says she’s had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients and I thought her voice was an important voice but I know nothing about her.’
Trump was being pressed by claims Immanuel has made that include face masks not working in combating COVID, alien DNA being used in prescriptions, and that the medical community is trying to make a vaccine to make a person immune to religion.
Trump ended the matter by saying ‘thank you very much’ and abruptly leaving the lectern.
The video was published by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News and showed Immanuel and others calling themselves ‘America’s Frontline Doctors’ staging a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Friday.
Immanuel slammed ‘fake doctors’ who doubt the efficacy of the drug, and claimed it’s a ‘cure’, adding ‘you don’t need a mask.’
‘If some fake science comes out and says we’ve done studies and they found out that it doesn’t work, I can tell you categorically it’s fake science,’ she said.
‘I want to know who’s conducted that study and who’s behind it. Because there is no way I have treat 350 patients and counting and nobody is dead,’ she said on how she allegedly treated patients with hydroxychloroquine along with zinc, and Zithromax.
However, her claims are contrary to the extensive tests that have been done regarding the drug.
Video of her fiery speech was shared on Twitter where it racked up over 14 million views on Monday, partly due to the promotion by far-right news organizations, but Twitter later took it down.
Facebook and YouTube also began to pull down videos of her claims, claiming it’s spreading misinformation about the pandemic.
Immanuel demanded the social media platforms reupload her videos after they were taken down for spreading disinformation.
She claimed God would crash their computers if they did not repost her speech.
Some of Immanuel’s sermons posted to her website have strange medical claims, including one in which she claims that certain medical issues like endometriosis, cysts, infertility and impotence are the result of sex with “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives,” which Immanuel described as having sex in dreams with witches and demons.
“We call them all kinds of names —endometriosis, we call them molar pregnancies, we call them fibroids, we call them cysts, but most of them are evil deposits from the spirit husband,” she said.
Immanuel warned that the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana was a gateway to evil, because its character had an ‘alter ego.’
She has claimed that schools teach children to meditate so they can ‘meet with demons.’
She also urges that ‘children need to be whipped’.
Donald Trump Jr. called Immanuel’s viral Friday speech a ‘must watch’ and posted a link on his Twitter page, causing his account access to be limited by Twitter for violating its rules.
President Trump also posted a link to the video through a retweet but was not locked out of his account. Twitter did not explain the discrepancy.
‘We’ve temporarily limited some of your account features,’ the Twitter notice to the president’s eldest son reads, adding it will be in effect for 12 hours.
‘We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for: 1. Violating the policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19,’ it continued.
In May the World Health Organization stopped its hydroxychloroquine trial.
The National Institutes for Health similarly halted their trial in June after determining it provided ‘no benefit’ in the patients studied.
Trump admitted in May he was on a two week course of the drug as part of a regime to combat the coroanvirus.
He said on Tuesday that ‘many doctors’ think hydroxy is successful.
Trump has come under heat for his handling of the coronavirus crisis and in recent weeks has tried rectify his reputation by holding solo coronavirus briefings, canceling some campaign events, and wearing a mask in public.
There is mixed evidence about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 and studies are ongoing.
Most have so far shown it offers little or no benefit.
The FDA has warned against the use of the drug, which is usually used to treat malaria and rheumatoid arthritis, due to the risk of heart rhythm problems.
Trump has dismissed concerns over the use of the drug.
Earlier this year he said there was a “very good chance” it could have a positive impact on treating the virus.
Trump added that “you’re not going to get sick and die” from taking it even if the drug does not help an individual with COVID-19.
These comments sparked a backlash and many of those criticizing Trump made reference to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) study which did show a higher mortality rate for those treated with the drug alone.
The FDA said there were “reports of serious heart rhythm problems and other safety issues, including blood and lymph system disorders, kidney injuries, and liver problems and failure” linked to the use of hydroxychloroquine.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has said there’s no evidence that shows hydroxychloroquine is effective at treating COVID-19.
Fauci this morning also dismissed Trump’s Monday night Twitter rant, which included his post of Dr. Immanuel’s speech along with criticism of Fauci.
‘I don’t know how to address that,’ the nation’s top immunologist told Good Morning America regarding the president’s tweet storm. ‘I’m just going to, certainly, continue doing my job.’
‘I, you know, I don’t tweet, I don’t – I don’t even read them,’ Fauci, 79, told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos. ‘So I don’t really want to go there.’
Trump went on a Twitter frenzy Monday night, including retweets of posts claiming Fauci lied to the country regarding hydroxychloroquine, which the president revealed he has taken as a preventative measure to stop him from contracting coronavirus.
Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, pushed back Tuesday morning: ‘I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.’