DeSantis, hydroxychloroquine pitchman

Ron DeSantis on Tuesday used his coronavirus briefing to give a choreographed, live-streamed shout-out to hydroxychloroquine, a drug President Donald Trump has touted as a potential miracle cure for Covid-19. The briefing included a videostreamed conversation between DeSantis and Dr. Sunil Kumar, a critical care and pulmonary physician at Broward Health. Hydroxychloroquine has for decades been used to treat arthritis and malaria, but hasn’t undergone the clinical testing necessary to determine if it’s an effective treatment for Covid-19. Trump’s outsized attention to the drug has disrupted efforts to respond to the outbreak and caused a schism between the White House and career health officials. The Food and Drug Administration last week authorized emergency use of the medicine for severely ill coronavirus patients who are already in the hospital. Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals provided Florida with a batch of hydroxychloroquine last month, and a second shipment was sent Monday. Amneal Pharmaceuticals also is sending a million doses of the experimental drug to Tallahassee, which are supposed to arrive Wednesday, the governor told reporters Tuesday. DeSantis differentiated between the use of hydroxychloroquine in hospitals and the death of an Arizona man who ingested chloroquine used to clean aquariums. Patients who take hydroxychloroquine paired with antibiotics need to be on a heart monitor because the drugs can cause arrhythmia, Carlos Campo, a doctor at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, said during the Tuesday briefing. Last month, Twitter asked Fox News host Laura Ingraham to delete a post touting the efficacy of the drug, saying it ran afoul of the company’s rules against misleading health information.