Fauci shoots down 'flawed' hydroxychloroquine study: 'You can peer review something that's a bad study'

Dr. Anthony Fauci is once again reiterating that hydroxychloroquine has not been shown to be effective in treating COVID-19.

Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, testified before Congress on Friday and told lawmakers that the "overwhelming cumulative evidence" indicates that hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that President Trump has promoted, has "no therapeutic efficacy" against the novel coronavirus. He was questioned by one lawmaker about this, with Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) bringing up a Henry Ford Health System study suggesting it reduces the death rate among coronavirus patients. Fauci quickly shot this down, though, explaining that this study he's citing had "a number of issues."

"That study is a flawed study," Fauci said. "...It is not a randomized, placebo-controlled trial."

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When Luetkemeyer challenged Fauci on this, noting that the study was peer reviewed, Fauci laughed and shot back, "It doesn't matter. You can peer review something that's a bad study." Fauci went on to emphasize that no randomized, placebo-controlled trial has "shown any efficacy for hydroxychloroquine," though he added that he'll be "the first one" to promote such a study that does.

"I just have to go with the data," Fauci added. "I don't have any horse in the game one way or the other."

Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment and even said he was taking it himself at one point, and earlier this week, he tweeted out a video promoting hydroxychloroquine that was ultimately removed from Twitter due to misinformation. Fauci subsequently reminded GMA that studies have indicated hydroxychloroquine is "not effective in coronavirus disease." Brendan Morrow