This clip from night before last is worth watching if you have the time. But fast forward to about 7:30 to see where the conversation turns to the “exciting” new treatment Trump went on and on about this morning:
Ingraham brings up the exciting new possibility of using hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus. Here’s how it went:
Fauci: We have to be careful, Laura that we don’t assume something works based on an anecdotal report that’s not controlled. And I refer specifically to hydroxychloroquine. There’s a lot of buzz out there, on the internet and social media, about that …
Ingraham: Well, there have been studies on that though…
Fauci: Those studies were not all controlled. What we’re going to do, Secretary Azar, the secretary of HHS, has asked me at NIH, Bob Redfield at CDC, Steve Hahn at FDA, to take a look at all the data and analyze the best way forward. more clinical trials or not, we’ll see. But we’re going to look at the data very seriously.
They are all forced to cater to the imbecile even in this time of crisis because he gets his information from Fox News.
This is not something the scientists are specifically excited about. It’s something that the right-wing fever swamp has been pushing out on Fox and which Trump has directed the scientists to focus on. Clearly, the order came from Trump to Azar to Fauci and the rest.
You’ll notice that Fauci and Redfield are no longer featured in the press conferences. Today he had Stephen Hahn of the FDA up there and he dutifully praised the president and called him “sir” but he wasn’t quite as optimistic as Trump clearly wanted him to be. I wonder if he’ll be back. In fact, the crowd at the dais is noticeably thinner which is a good thing considering the admonitions about social distancing. Unfortunately, it means he talks more and that’s not good. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss Mike Pence. He may be a liar and a sycophant but at least he doesn’t spend most of the time blaming others and ragging on the press. It’s over more quickly if nothing else.
Now, it’s the Morning Trump Show, almost as good as a Trump rally.