Everyone wants a cure for COVID-19, the new coronavirus spreading around the world and causing economic and social upheaval. An effective treatment would also go a long way toward helping the world amble toward normalcy while researchers develop and test a vaccine. President Trump has put great store in hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug used now to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, but his federal health and medical advisers are skeptical.
The idea of the drug as a potential COVID-19 treatment started with Chinese reports of clinical trials, a tweet from Nigeria, and Facebook posts from France, Washington Post fact-checker Elyse Samuels recounts, but it started taking off in the U.S. when a block-chain investor tweeted a Google Doc he co-wrote exploring chloroquine's coronavirus-slaying properties — and Elon Musk retweeted it three days later, on March 16. Conservative media picked up the claims, then Fox News, and finally Trump and his close allies.
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