Trump on chloroquine; Mar 19-23

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-briefing-transcript-march-19-trump-takes-shots-at-the-media

Donald Trump: (07:24)
Somebody was on yesterday, on one of the networks and said that there’s never been a president at even close that’s been able to do what I’ve done in slashing all of the red tape and everything to get very important things to the market medical. So we slashed red tape to develop vaccines and therapies as fast as it can possibly be done, long before anybody else was even thinking about doing this. And as you know, earlier this week we began the first clinical trial of a vaccine candidate for the virus, and that was launched in record time. It was just a few weeks, and that would have taken years to do not so long ago. As we race to develop a vaccine, we’re also pursuing antiviral therapies and that’s what really we’re going to be talking to you about today. That’s the purpose of being up here today, and to me that’s even more important.

Donald Trump: (08:22)
Vaccine by its nature, you have to have long tests because you have to make sure what goes into somebody’s body is not going to do destruction, do bad things. So you need long tests, and they’re doing great with the vaccines, but it’s still a long process. But the therapies and something we can move on much faster potentially. And the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms and make people better. Essentially we’re looking at things to make people better or at the very earliest stages, they wouldn’t even know they had it. And that’s where I believe it’s going to work even the best. The FDA commissioner, Steven Hahn, who’s with us, he’s fantastic, and he has been working 24 hours a day. He’s been … He’s worked probably as hard or harder than anybody in the group, other than maybe Mike Pence or me.

Donald Trump: (09:29)
What the FDA is doing is incredible. They’ve done things in times that were not even thinkable. And I’ve directed the FDA to eliminate outdated rules and bureaucracy so this work can proceed rapidly, quickly, and I mean fast. And we have to remove every barrier. There were a lot of barriers that were unnecessary, and they’ve done that to get the rapid deployment of safe, effective treatments, and we think we have some good answers. We’ll find out very, very soon. Clinical trials are already underway for many new therapies and we’re working on scaling these to allow many more Americans to access different drugs that have shown really good promise. We’ve had some really good promise. We will do so in a way that lets us continue to collect good data, to know which medicines are safe, and which medicines are working the best. We have a couple that we’re in really good shape on, and that’s for immediate delivery, immediate. Like as fast as we can get it.

Donald Trump: (10:52)
The FDA has also approved compassionate use for a significant number of patients. You know what that means. We’re also reviewing drugs that are approved abroad or drugs approved here for other uses. And one of the things that I’m most proud of that I got was right to try. That’s where somebody who’s ill, somebody who’s very sick, terminally ill, usually. In past administrations, we signed this a year and a half ago, you wouldn’t be able to even think about getting any of the drugs that may be showing great promise now. And they’ve been trying for many decades to get this approved. And it sounds simple, but it’s not because there’s liability involved and lots of other things. And I was able to get it approved, working with Congress, right to try. This is beyond right to try. What we’re talking about today is beyond right to try. Right to try has been, by the way, a tremendous success.

Donald Trump: (11:49)
People are living now that had no chance of living where we take treatments that would … Things that would have to go through years of a process. And if somebody was terminally ill and I would say, “Why wouldn’t they be able to try this?” They’d go to Asia, they’d go to Europe, they’d go all over the world to try and find something. Or some people, if they had no money, would go home to die. They’d go home to die. They had no hope. Right to try has been an incredible success, but this is beyond right to try. If treatments known to be safe in Europe, Japan or other nations are effective against a virus, we’ll use that information to protect the health and safety of American people. Nothing will stand in our way as we pursue any Avenue to find what best works against this horrible virus. Now, a drug called chloroquine, and some people would add to it, hydroxy, hydroxychloroquine, so chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine.

Donald Trump: (12:56)
Now, this is a common malaria drug. It’s also a drug used for strong arthritis. Somebody who has pretty serious arthritis also uses this in a somewhat different form, but it is known as a malaria drug and it’s been around for a long time and it’s very powerful. But the nice part is it’s been around for a long time, so we know that if it … If things don’t go as planned, it’s not going to kill anybody. When you go with a brand new drug, you don’t know that that’s going to happen. You have to see and you have to go long test. But this has been used in different forms, very powerful drug in different forms and it’s shown very encouraging, very, very encouraging early results, and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. And that’s where the FDA has been so great. They’ve gone through the approval process, it’s been approved, and they did it. They took it down from many, many months to immediate.

Donald Trump: (14:15)
So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states … I spoke with governor Cuomo about it at great length last night and he wants to be right on … He wants to be first on the line. And so I think that’s a tremendous … There’s tremendous promise based on the results and other tests. There’s tremendous promise. And normally the FDA would take a long time to approve something like that and it was approved very, very quickly and it’s now approved by prescription. Individual states will handle it, they can handle it, doctors will handle it. And I think it’s going to be great. Then we’re quickly studying this drug and while we’re continuing to study it, but the studying is going to be also done in … As it’s given out to large groups of people, perhaps in New York and other places.

Donald Trump: (15:18)
We’ll study it there. There are promising therapies produced by Gilead, and that’s remdesivir, remdesivir, and that’s a drug used for other purposes that’s been out, and it’s had very good results for other purposes, but it seems to have a very good result having to do with this virus, and that drug also has been approved or very close to approved, in that case, by the FDA, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate what the FDA, these people are incredible patriots and the job that Stephen Hahn is doing, Dr. Hahn, who’s one of the most respected doctors in the country by the way, where we took him … I said, “You sure you want to do this?” Now we didn’t know that this was going to be in the playlist of what happened here. But he really has stepped up to the plate, wherever you are.

Donald Trump: (16:19)
Where is he? You really have. I’d shake his hand, but I’m not supposed to do that. Get in a lot of trouble if I did that, but he’s been fantastic and I thank you doctor. He’s going to speak right after I’m finished. So Regeneron, again, is a company that’s done fantastically well as I understand with Ebola and some other things, great company and they’re looking at some very promising events also. So you have remdesivir and you have a hydroxychloroquine. So those are two that are out now, essentially approved for prescribed use. And I think it’s going to be very exciting. I think it could be a game changer, and maybe not and maybe not, but I think it could be, based on what I see, it could be a game changer. Very powerful. They’re very powerful.

Donald Trump: (17:21)
So I want every American to know that we’re doing everything we can and these actions are important next steps. I mean, for the FDA to act the way they acted with this kind of speed is an incredible thing. Normally they’d say, “Well, we can have it by next year or we can have it by in two years from now.” You understand, this is the way. Normally it’s like years and years and years, they had it immediately. Based on the fact that it’s been used for other things. Totally unrelated things. We believe these therapeutics and others under evaluation right now will be able to provide relief to many Americans. We really hope that’s going to be, this could be a tremendous breakthrough, tremendous breakthrough, and we will work toward a much needed vaccine in the future, as I said, and what we’re doing with the FDA is so exciting and so many other fields, so many things are happening.

...

Dr. Steven Hahn: (20:11)
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank you for your leadership during this coronavirus outbreak, and thank you for the kind words about the FDA staff. We have 10,000 scientists, doctors and others, and more than that, working around the clock to aid the American people in this fight against the coronavirus. And those words are very much appreciated, sir. So before the president nominated me, and I was confirmed as commissioner of food and drugs, I was a cancer doctor and I’ve sat across from countless number of patients and had to talk to them about their diagnosis and their treatment, and one thing that was really important is to provide hope. I have great hope for how we’re going to come out of this situation. What’s also important is not to provide false hope, but to provide hope. And as a doctor, that’s the way I come to this.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (21:03)
I’m speaking now to the American people as commissioner of food and drugs, but that part of me has not left. Just look at the way the American people have responded to our calls for mitigation, for social distancing. The American people had great resiliency, and I am so incredibly proud of how the American people have responded. As the president mentioned, he asked us to be aggressive, to break down barriers to innovation, and to accelerate the development of lifesaving treatments, and we’re doing that at the FDA. The FDA is committed to continuing to provide regulatory flexibility and guidance, but let me make one thing clear. FDA’s responsibility to the American people is to ensure that products are safe and effective and yet we are continuing to do that. Our folks and their tremendous professionals are working day and night to do this. You just can’t even imagine how much they’re working to provide the support for the American people, and I thank them.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (22:01)
Since early January, long before the first domestic case, FDA began working in collaboration with CDC. I also want to note that we stood up an incident command group and had been focused on the coronavirus since the very beginning of this public health emergency. This is, in addition, and all of government and all of America approach, and I’ll describe what I mean by that in terms of the development of therapeutics. An important part of that work is expanding the potential therapeutic options associated with coronavirus, and we’ve learned from our colleagues across the globe about this. But I want to focus on one thing. I was a cancer researcher before all this, and one thing I know about this great country of ours is that we have unbelievable innovators. We have people who every day it’s their job to develop treatments for all sorts of diseases. We are incredibly blessed as a country to have this, and as is true in any illness, these great American innovators, academia, private sector, they have engaged us about the best possible treatment options.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (23:05)
We are looking at everything that’s coming across our desks as possible, treatment options for coronavirus, and we’re extremely encouraged by the interest and the promise that we’ve seen from these great American innovators. Now again, we need to look at it. We need the data, we need the information to make the absolute best decisions for the American people, but I want assure you, we have over 17,000 people at FDA who are doing this every day. We need to make sure that this sea of new treatments will get the right drug to the right patient at the right dosage at the right time. As an example, we may have the right drug, but it may not be in the appropriate dosage right now and that may do more harm than good. Those are the things that that’s our job to look at, and that’s why it’s really important we have these dedicated professionals looking at these aspects of therapeutic development.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (23:56)
At the same time, we’re also working through different mechanisms to actually get drugs into the hands of providers and patients. The president mentioned this but one of the mechanisms is called compassionate use. Let me just tell you about this. If there’s an experimental drug that’s potentially available, a doctor could ask for that drug to be used in a patient. We have criteria for that and very speedy approval for that. The important thing about compassionate use, and that’s what the president meant, this is even beyond right to try, is that we get to collect the information about that, because one of the things that I promise the American people is we will collect the data and then make the absolute right decisions based upon those data about the safety and efficacy of the treatments.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (24:38)
We are working expeditiously and we are working to make sure that these products are as safe and effective as they possibly can be. Let me tell you about a few things that we’re currently working on, and this is a plan that was developed with many of the people at this table, our infectious disease experts on the task force. In the short term we’re looking at drugs that are already approved for other indications. So they’re already approved, as the president said, for other diseases. As an example, many Americans have read studies and heard media reports about this drug chloroquine, which is an anti-malarial drug. It’s already approved, as the president said, for the treatment of malaria as well as an arthritis condition. That’s a drug that the president has directed us to take a closer look at as to whether an expanded use approach to that could be done to actually see if that benefits patients. And again, we want to do that in the setting of a clinical trial, a large pragmatic clinical trial to actually gather that information and answer the question that needs to be asked and answered.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (25:42)
Let me give you another example. There’s a cross agency effort about something called convalescent plasma. This is a pretty exciting area, and again this is something that we have given assistance to other countries with as this crisis has developed, so FDA has been working for some time on this. If you’ve been exposed to coronavirus and you’re better, you don’t have the virus in your blood, we could collect the blood. Now, this is a possible treatment. This is not a proven treatment. Just want to emphasize that. Collect the blood, concentrate that and have the ability, once it’s pathogen free, that it’s virus free. Be able to give that to other patients and the immunoglobulins, the immune response could potentially provide a benefit to patients.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (26:24)
It’s another thing that we’re looking at, over the next couple of weeks we’ll have more information that we’re really pushing hard to try to accelerate that. That’s in the sort of more medium short term, and that’ll be a bridge to other therapies that will take us three to six months to develop, and this is a continuous process. There is no beginning and end to each of this, this is we’re pushing this through. The other great thing about the great innovators of America. Some of them tell us it’s taken us years, years to develop therapies. They’re looking at pushing that to the months period of time, and we’re trying to provide them the regulatory flexibility, but at the same time the scientific oversight to make sure that gets done in the best way possible for the-

Dr. Steven Hahn: (27:03)
-scientific oversight to make sure that gets done in the best way possible for the American people. The president mentioned that there is a vaccine trial currently being performed. It’s a phase one trial, so it’s the earliest study that gets done. We expect that to take 12 months to get to completion to actually a time where we could approve a vaccine. These are all things to bridge to the prevention part of this with a vaccine. It’s exciting work and the president is right. This is record time for the development of a vaccine and impressive public private partnership.

Dr. Steven Hahn: (27:33)
The FDA’s efforts to facilitate the development of these products are focused on ensuring timely access while also meeting the agency’s world respected gold standard, relyings on strong data from clinical trials to determine if an experimental or an off the shelf drug that’s used for something else can safely and effectively treat patients. We want to assure the American people that FDA is all hands on deck, as the president mentioned these efforts, and continue to work with interested sponsors to help expedite the work. We remain steadfast in helping to foster the development of safe and effective therapies for COVID-19. Thank you.

Donald Trump: (28:11)
Thank you, doctor. Thank you very much. Mike, talk about the masks.


https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-march-20-press-conference-transcript-trump-spars-with-reporters-in-fiery-briefing
Peter: (46:01)
[crosstalk 00:46:01] the not-yet-approved drug-

Donald Trump: (46:05)
Such a lovely question. Look, it may work, and it may not work. I agree with the doctor, what he said. May work, may not work. I feel good about it. That’s all it is. Just a feeling. I’m a smart guy. I feel good about it. We’re going to see.

Donald Trump: (46:21)
You’re going to see soon enough. We have certainly some very big samples of people. If you look at the people, you have a lot of people that are in big trouble. This is not a drug that, obviously, I think I can speak from a lot of experience, because it’s been out there for over 20 years. It’s not a drug that you have a huge amount of danger with. It’s not a brand-new drug that’s been just created, that may have an unbelievable monumental effect like kill you. We’re going to know very soon.

Donald Trump: (46:51)
I can tell you, the FDA’s working very hard to get it out. Right now, in terms of malaria, if you want it, you can have a prescription. You get a prescription. By the way, and it’s very effective. It works.

Donald Trump: (47:03)
I have a feeling you may … I’m not being overly optimistic or pessimistic. I sure as hell think we ought to give it a try. There’s been some interesting things happened, and some very good things. Let’s see what happens. We have nothing to lose. You know the expression? What the hell do you have to lose?

Peter: (47:26)
What do you say to Americans who are scared, though? Nearly 200 dead. 14,000 who are sick. Millions, as you witness, who are scared right now. What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?

Donald Trump: (47:38)
I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question, and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people. The American people are looking for answers and they’re looking for hope, and you’re doing sensationalism. The same with NBC and Comcast. I don’t call it Comcast, I called Concast, for who you work.

Donald Trump: (48:01)
Let me just tell you something. That’s really bad reporting, and you ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism. Let’s see if it works. It might and it might not. I happen to feel good about it, but who knows? I’ve been right a lot. Let’s see what happens.

John: (48:21)
The units that were ordered, are they for clinical trials? Are they for distribution to the general patient population?

Speaker 7: (48:27)
As I understand it, we are going to be taking samples in New York. Governor Cuomo very much is interested in this drug, and they are going to work on it also after they get a certain approval. We’re waiting for one final approval from the FDA. We’ll see what happens, but we’ll use it on people that are not doing great or even at the beginning of not feeling well.

Speaker 7: (48:53)
John, it’s been out there for so long. We hear good things. Let’s see. Maybe it works, and maybe it doesn’t.

John: (49:01)
I understand all that. I’m just thinking the application here. That would be under a modified compassionate access?

Speaker 7: (49:03)
We’re doing that, I guess. That’s what it’s called, yeah. Yes?

Speaker 9: (49:07)
I would like, Dr. Fauci, if you don’t mind, to follow up on what the president is saying. Should Americans have hope in this drug right now? Sir, I would like to follow up on Peter’s question, here. Could you please address Americans in this country who are scared right now? This is a very valid concern that people have.

Anthony Fauci: (49:24)
There really isn’t that much of a difference in many respects with what we’re saying. The president feels optimistic about something, his feeling about it. What I’m saying is that it might be effective. I’m not saying that it isn’t. It might be effective.

Anthony Fauci: (49:37)
But, as a scientist, as we’re getting it out there, we need to do it in a way as, while we are making it available for people who might want the hope that it might work, you’re also collecting data that will ultimately show that it is truly effective and safe under the conditions of COVID-19. It really isn’t different. It’s just a question of how one feels about it.

John: (50:03)
Is there any reason to believe it’s not safe?

Anthony Fauci: (50:04)
Well, certainly as a drug, any drug, John has some toxicities. The decades of experience that we have with this drug indicate that the toxicities are rare and they are in many respects reversible. What we don’t know is when you put it in the context of another disease, whether it’s safe. Fundamentally I think it probably is going to be safe, but I like to prove things first. So it really is a question of not a lot of difference. It’s the hope that it will work versus proving that it will work. So I don’t see big differences here.

Donald Trump: (50:36)
I agree.

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-update-transcript-march-21
Steve: (57:44)
Yesterday there were questions about the use of this malaria drug. Have those questions now been resolved?

Donald Trump: (57:49)
Well, I don’t know that resolved. I can say that it’s going to distributed. I know New York is getting I think 10,000 units and numerous other people. It’s really, it could be the malaria drug plus the Z-Pak. But, and we’re going to find out, we’re going to find out. I feel as the expression goes, what do we have to lose? Because I feel very good about it. Tony would feel, like he’d like samples done in a certain way and I understand that, too. Many doctors agree with that. We don’t have much time.

Donald Trump: (58:27)
We have a lot of very sick people right now in hospitals all over the place and speaking with the governor in New York, Cuomo, I said, “How’s it look?” He’s got a lot of sick people, so we’re going to be delivering a lot of samples to New York and other places and we’re going to find out very shortly whether or not it’s going to work. I feel very confident. I’ve seen things that surprise me frankly.

Donald Trump: (58:52)
There are, as Tony said, there are other things we’re looking at too. Vaccine of course is incredible, but this is more immediate. Right now, this to me would be the greatest thing that could happen. This would be a gift from heaven. This would be a gift from God if it works. So we’re going to pray to God that it does work. It’d be a fantastic thing.

....

Speaker 3: (01:21:39)
I mentioned I had a medication question, and I wanted to ask it while the president was here, because earlier he Tweeted that there were two certain medications that when taken together quote “Have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” and that they should be quote “Put in use immediately.” Since he’s not here I can’t ask him what he meant, but I’m wondering if Dr. Fauci or the admiral could clarify if you have any sense of what he was talking about, and whether his 74 and a half million Twitter followers should be taking medical advice from him or from someone else.

Mike Pence: (01:22:20)
The president brought together the top pharmaceutical companies in America and in the world a number of weeks ago, and they formed a consortium to work on a range of responses beginning with therapeutics which for a layman like me that just means medicine to make you feel better. They’re already going to work on that. We actually think, Dr. Fauci, I think there’s some sense that our great pharmaceutical companies may actually be producing therapeutics that will give relief to Americans struggling with coronavirus as soon as this spring. We also challenged them to work together as rapidly possible to develop a vaccine going forward.

Mike Pence: (01:23:05)
And as Dr. Fauci has indicated we brought a vaccine to clinical trials now the better part of a week ago, the fastest time in history. Now, it’s the first phase of the trials and people should understand, as our health experts have described, they’ll be a period of as much as a year and a half before we can make those vaccines available. But as the president said at this podium there is some anecdotal evidence that several existing medicines may have brought relief to patients struggling in China, and in Europe, and the president has tasked the FDA to work very rapidly to allow what’s called off-label use for those.

Mike Pence: (01:23:54)
One is a malaria medicine. This morning I think the president reiterated the hopefulness he feels about this, that because these are medications that are time honored, and tested, they’ve been taken for many, many years, that we want to pursue, number one, making those available. If someone’s doctor believes that it’s appropriate the doctor would be able to prescribe that medicine even though that’s not indicated.

Mike Pence: (01:24:24)
That’s called an off-label use. But the other piece is, as Dr. Fauci said, and I’ll yield to him, in deploying those medicines we’re working specifically with one state to do so in a way that represents a clinical trial, so it would not just be compassionate use, which the medicines are already being used in some jurisdictions today, but also we could study it and determine the viability of it.

Mike Pence: (01:24:56)
And in fact, we’re working diligently right now with that supply chain to make sure that those medicines are available. Dr. Fauci, did you want to speak to that?

Dr. Anthony Fauci: (01:25:04)
Sure. It’s essentially what I said multiple times from this podium, is that when you have … First of all, we’re trying to develop de novo drugs that are not yet out there, not approved, that ultimately would be effective, and the way you prove that is to do a randomized control trial to prove safety and efficacy. I’m not totally sure what the president was referring to, but I believe he’s referring to a report that used both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin together to have some possibility of being an effect.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: (01:25:39)
Many of the things that you hear out there are what I had called anecdotal reports. They may be true, but they’re anecdotal, so the only thing that I was saying is that if you really wanted to definitively know if something works that you’ve got to do the kind of trial that you get the good information. The president is talking about hope for people, and it’s not an unreasonable thing to hope for people, so when you have approved drugs that physicians have the option, and a decision between the physician and the patient, are you going to use a drug that someone says from an anecdotal standpoint, not completely proven, but might have some effect? There are those who lean to the point of giving hope and saying give that person the option of having access to that drug, and then you have the other group, which is my job as a scientist to say my job is to ultimately prove without a doubt that a drug is not only safe, but that it actually works.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: (01:26:38)
Those two things are really not incompatible when you think about that, particularly when you’re in an arena where you don’t have anything that’s proven. We went through the same sort of thing with a little bit of a different twist during the HIV/AIDS epidemic until we finally developed drugs that were absolutely knockout drugs that were safe and that were effective. But in the beginning there was that tension about that, so you’ve really got to have a balance. I’ve got to do my job as a scientist, and others have other things to do.

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-briefing-transcript-march-22-national-guard-activated-in-new-york-california-and-washington-state
Donald Trump: (01:07:50)
So Governor Cuomo told me they’ll be using their supply, starting their supply on Tuesday morning. I think it’s very exciting, I think because if that happens, much of what we’re talking about with ships and hospitals and all of the things that we’re doing, and all of these masks and everything that we’re ordering, ventilators, it’s a whole different game if that happens. And we’ll see. There’s been some tremendous signs that this could work. Now again, some doctors think it should go for years on testing, but this has been something that’s been around for many years. It’s been phenomenal, strong, powerful drug for malaria.

Donald Trump: (01:08:31)
But we think it might work on this based on evidence, based on very strong evidence. We’re going to see, we’re going to know sometime after Tuesday. But you’ll have to ask Governor Cuomo, I think they’re going to start the process. We’ve gotten them the drug. I think they’re going to start the process of giving the drug through mouth. And I think that starts on Tuesday morning, he said. And that’ll be, I mean, I’ll tell you what. I don’t want to get anybody overly excited, but I’m very excited by that, by the prospect of it. Then in addition to that, NIH is working on vaccines and all. They’re making great progress, but the vaccine does have to be tested for a long period of time because you can’t give thousands millions of people a vaccine and it turns out to be dangerous. So that does have to be tested. But this one’s been taken for a long time, so we know pretty much one result. Yeah, please.

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-briefing-transcript-march-23
Donald Trump: (06:41)
I’m pleased to report that clinical trials in New York will begin existing for existing drugs that may prove effective against the virus. At my direction, the federal government is working to help obtain large quantities of flororoquin, and you can look from any standpoint tomorrow in New York, we think tomorrow pretty early. The hydroxychloroquine and the Z-Pak, I think as a combination probably is looking very, very good and it’s going to be distributed. We have 10,000 units going, and it’ll be distributed tomorrow. It’ll be available, and it is now. They already have it. They’re going to distribute it tomorrow morning to a lot of people in New York City and New York. We’re studying it very closely, watching it very closely. You probably saw a couple of articles today came out where a gentleman, they thought he was not going to make it, he said goodbye to his family, they had given him the drug just a little while before, but he thought it was over. His family thought he was going to die, and a number of hours later he woke up, felt good. Then he woke up again and he felt really good, and he’s in good shape, and he’s very happy for this particular drug that we got approved in record setting time.

Donald Trump: (08:16)
There’s never been anything even close to it, and I want to thank the FDA, which has been incredible, and Dr. Hahn, Stephen Hahn, a highly respected man, but they’re doing everything possible to increase production and available supply of these drugs, not only this drug but also others that are coming. Remdesivir is coming from Regeneron, a couple of others are also under study, but the one that I’m very excited about right now is the one we just mentioned, and I think there’s a real chance, I mean, again, we don’t know, but there’s a real chance that it could have a tremendous impact. It would be a gift from God if that worked. It would be a big game changer, so we’ll see, but distribution starts tomorrow morning early in New York and I think a lot of people are going to be, hopefully they’re going to be very happy with the result, but we’re all going to be watching closely. It’s something we have to try. It’s been very, very successful on Malaria, very, very successful, and countries with Malaria have had an interesting thing happen. They take this particular drug, it’s a very powerful drug, and there is very little semblance of the virus in those countries, and there are those that say because this drug is very prevalent because of the Malaria, so we’ll see what happens.