COVID-19 drug debate continues

Trump administration officials are split over the use of anti-malarial drugs to treat COVID-19. President Donald Trump and his advisers have promoted anecdotal evidence showing some coronavirus patients improved after taking hydroxychloroquine. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, said the data is “at best suggestive.” He insisted more testing is needed before doctors widely prescribe it.

Are U.S. doctors using the drug? The White House coronavirus task force decided to distribute nearly 30 million hydroxychloroquine tablets to coronavirus hotspots across the country. But it is up to individual doctors to decide whether to use the medicine. Physicians in New York have treated patients with the drug. As of Tuesday morning, there were nearly 370,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, with more than 11,000 deaths and more than 20,000 recoveries, according to John Hopkins University.

Dig deeper: Read Julie Borg’s report in Beginnings on the hunt for medication to fight the disease.