Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, told the “Todd Starnes Show” on Tuesday that it is amusing to watch Democrats and their allies in the media react to President Trump’s revelation that he is taking the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus infection.
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Huckabee told the program that he retweeted a post that summed up his personal feelings about the media frenzy.
The tweet “basically said that Democrats believe that any medical decision is between a woman and, you know, her doctor. But if you’re a Republican, then your medical decisions are between you, your doctor, the Democratic Party and the anchors on CNN,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee said it was remarkable to watch reporters with no medical background determine that anyone who takes this drug will die. Trump and the White House insisted that the president made the decision to take the drug after consultation with his physician. The White House stressed that individuals—like always—should consult with their own doctors before taking the drug, which could have serious side effects.
“It’s a stunning thing to see people, as soon as Donald Trump said that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, who basically came out and said, ‘He’s going to die; people are going to die from it.’ And I thought, ‘Well, tell that to all the lupus patients and [the millions of] people who have had this drug prior to going to some third-world country.”
Trump announced that he was taking the drug that he earlier praised for its effectiveness in the fight against the coronavirus. The media was quick to criticize him earlier when he called the combination of the drug and antibiotics as a potential “game-changer.” The drug showed promise at first, but recent studies have downplayed its effectiveness and stressed the dangers, especially for heart patients.
Huckabee said the drug would not be allowed on the market if it killed everyone who ingested it.
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“Like any drug, it could be dangerous in the hands of the wrong person,” he said. “But shouldn’t that be a decision made by a doctor who is prescribing it to his patient and not some anchor on CNN or, for that matter, the Fox News Channel.”
Neil Cavuto, the Fox News anchor, made headlines after announcing on the channel, “If you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus, or in a worst-case scenario you are dealing with the virus and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you. I cannot stress that enough. This will kill you.”