Veterans Used as Guinea Pigs to Test Trump’s “Game Changer” Drug

Up until he suggested injecting COVID-19 patients with disinfectant, perhaps the strangest Trump obsession of the pandemic has been his promotion of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. It was March when Trump first publicly boosted the drug:

“And I think it’s going to be very exciting.  I think it could be a game changer and maybe not.  And maybe not.  But I think it could be, based on what I see, it could be a game-changer.  Very powerful.  They’re very powerful.”

In the days that followed, Trump repeatedly mentioned hydroxychloroquine during his televised  daily briefings and continued to tweet about the drug, both singularly and as part of an unproven drug cocktail with the antibiotic azithromycin. By March 21, the hoopla surrounding this supposed wonder cure had taken hold, with Fox News and Fox Business having mentioned chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine 176 times.

Despite a lack of controlled clinical trials demonstrating the drug’s effectiveness in treating COVID-19, much less its safety, the FDA was somehow persuaded to issue an Emergency Use Authorization for hydroxychloroquine on March 28. The fact sheet released at the time expressly stated that the drug was “not approved by the FDA for treatment of COVID-19,” nor was there sufficient information about safety and effectiveness. Nevertheless, emergency use in adult patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 was authorized.

Shortly afterward, the Veterans Administration began use of hydroxychloroquine on hospitalized veterans. It did not go well. A report issued on April 21 found that in a study of 368 patients, the drug was not only not effective, but was associated with higher death rates. (27.8% for patients administered hydroxychloroquine versus 11.4% for patients on a standard course of treatment.) The FDA soon issued an alert warning against the use of the drug.

But the Trump VA continued to treat sick veterans with hydroxychloroquine. VA Secretary Robert Wilkie even went so far as to dismiss the VA’s own study and asserted that the drug was known to be effective in younger veterans. 

“That’s an observational study. It’s not a clinical study. It was done on a small number of veterans. Sadly, those of whom were in the last stages of life. And the drug was given to them. And I have to also say that the drug — we know the drug has been working on middle-age and younger veterans ... working in stopping the progression of the disease.” (AP News) 

This was a total mischaracterization of the study. There is no evidence that the drug is safe or effective for younger veterans with COVID-19.

On May 10, Sen. Chuck Schumer highlighted the VA’s bulk purchase of hydroxychloroquine and demanded to know what the agency planned to do with it. 

“The question is, are our veterans in our VA hospitals being used as guinea pigs?” Schumer said. “Are our vets being used for clandestine COVID-19 drug testing?” (New York Daily News)

New studies continue to emerge, echoing much the same results as the VA’s study. The drug, whether administered alone or in combination with azithromycin, does not work, but can carry significant additional risks.

Veterans groups, like the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, are raising the alarm and want answers. 

“Why were veterans who were receiving treatment from a federal agency being treated with an unproven and speculative drug? … At what point did the VA know that the results were this dire and when did they act upon those results?”

So far, the Veterans Administration has not disclosed any information.