Q Mr. President, as President of the United States, your words carry enormous weight in this country and around the world. And while you acknowledge you’re not a physician, you do promote these medicines extensively here. How do you not go so far as to be giving medical advice? And you said, yesterday, you might take some of these medicines, even though you don’t have symptoms. Are you still planning to do that? And how do you calibrate being enthusiastic —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — and not playing doctor?
THE PRESIDENT: Because I want people to live and I’m seeing people dying. And I see people that are going to die without it. And you know the expression. When that’s happening, they should do it. What really do we have to lose?
We also have — this medicine has been tested for many years for malaria and for lupus, so it’s been out there. So it’s a very strong, powerful medicine, but it doesn’t kill people. We have some very good results and some very good tests. You’ve seen the same test that I have.
Q But for those without symptoms, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: In France, they had a very good test; they’re continuing. But we don’t have time to go and say, “Gee, let’s take a couple of years and test it out. And let’s go and test with the test tubes and the laboratories.” We don’t have time. I’d love to do that. But we have people dying today. As we speak, there are people dying. If it works, that would be great. If it doesn’t work — we know, for many years, malaria, it — it’s incredible what it’s done for malaria; it’s incredible what it’s done for lupus. But it doesn’t kill people.
That’s one of the things with a vaccine. When we have a vaccine, we have to do tests because when you inject that vaccine, when they take whatever ever it is they have to take, we have to make sure it doesn’t have a horrible impact, destroy somebody. Good? So we have to test it for a long period of time. This one, not so much because it’s been out there.
Now, I’m not acting as a doctor. I’m saying, “Do what you want, but there are some good signs.” You’ve read the signs, I’ve read the signs. With the other one, there’s some very good signs also. Different — going together works very well. But there may be an indication that if you have a problem with your heart, you shouldn’t take what we call the Z-Pak. You shouldn’t take it, and that’s okay.
But I would love to go to a laboratory and spend a couple of years testing something. We don’t have time. We don’t have two hours, because there are people dying right now. If it does help, great. If it doesn’t help, we gave it a shot. We gave it a shot. That’s the way I feel.
Q Were you serious about taking it, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, we passed something — yeah, I would — I would be very serious about taking it.
We passed something that I’m very proud of. It’s called Right to Try. For 45, 50 years, they’ve been trying. It makes so much sense. We have the greatest doctors and labs and lab technicians, the greatest medicines, the greatest minds in the world. Everybody admits it. And when we’re close to having something, or when we have something that tests incredibly well, you couldn’t use it for years because they would take years and years to test.
So with the help of also Democrats — I got it bipartisan, but they’ve been trying to get this passed for — for decades. You know that. It’s called Right to Try. So a person would be diagnosed terminally ill from something. And in the old days, meaning before a year ago, they would say, “Do you think I could try this — this pill, this whatever, this medicine that’s testing so well?” “No, you can’t do that. You can’t do that under no circumstances.” They’d leave for Asia, they’d leave for Europe, they’d leave for — if they had money. If they had no money, they’d go home and die with no hope.
We got a thing called Right to Try. If somebody is very ill, terminally ill, they’re going to die. They — and it was very complex. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds because there were huge liability problems. The drug companies didn’t want to do it because they didn’t want it on test results — because these are very sick people, so they didn’t want to bring down their test results. The insurance companies had tremendous problems.
I got everybody in the room, I said, “Look, we’ll sign a waiver.” The person taking it will say, “We’re not going to sue.” The family is not going to sue the drug company, not going to sue the insurance company, not going to sue the state, the city, or the federal government. Okay? It’s called “exculpation.” And we got it done. It’s a very simple agreement. I don’t know why nobody ever thought of it, but they never thought of it. I did. And we got it done.
Now we have Right to Try, which is actually, in my opinion, much more difficult than what we’re talking about here. But if there’s a medicine or something, a possible cure, or something that’s looking good and somebody has something that’s going — they’re going to die or they’re very sick, they take it. And, you know, we’ve had some unbelievable results. Unbelievable results. And it also gives the people hope.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, but the doctors who are treating coronavirus patients, they have the medical expertise to determine whether or not they should prescribe hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s true. And many of them do.
Q And there are already clinical trials in place —
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q — looking at hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q So, why not —
THE PRESIDENT: They should be finished in about a year.
Q Why not just let the science speak for itself? Why are you promoting this drug?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not. I’m not. I’m just saying —
Q You’re coming out —
THE PRESIDENT: — very simply. I’m not at all. I’m not.
Look, you know what I’m trying to do? I’m trying to save lives.
Q Well, you come out here every day — right, sir? — talking about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: I want them to try it. And it may work, and it may not work. But if it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it. Nothing.
Q What do you —
THE PRESIDENT: Because we know — long term, what I want, I want to save lives. And I don’t want it to be in a lab for the next year and a half as people are dying all over the place.
Q But it’s already out there. Doctors are already able to prescribe it off label.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.
Q Right? So what do you accomplish?
THE PRESIDENT: All I’m doing is saying — well, I’ll tell you what I accomplish. We bought massive amounts of it — 29 million doses of it. We have it coming from all of the labs. We’re actually now doing it here, because in case it does work, we want to have it. And we’ve given it to drugstores, we’re — we’re sending it all over. FEMA is doing it. FEMA is doing it. We’re doing it through different channels, many different channels, including the companies that make it.
Q So you —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s a very special thing. Now, it may not work, in which case, hey, it didn’t work. And it may work, in which case, it’s going to save a lot of lives. Now, a lot of people say, if the people walking in prior to getting it, if they take it, it has a profound effect. Well, maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t.
Q Where is the conclusive medical evidence of that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to wait a year and a half to find out.
And only CNN would ask that question. Fake news.