Politics

CNN’s Cuomo Mocks Trump Over Hydroxychloroquine — A Version Of It Was Included In His Own COVID-19 Treatment

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Greg Price Contributor
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CNN anchor Chris Cuomo mocked President Donald Trump on Monday for announcing that he had been taking anti-malarial drugs as a preventative treatment for coronavirus even though he had also used a version of the drug in his own COVID-19 treatment regimen.

In a late Monday tweet after Trump’s announcement, Cuomo responded to a video of Florida police breaking up a block party by saying “No worries. They can just take some chloroquine.”

Cuomo also said in the opening of Monday’s Cuomo Prime Time that “the president knows that Hydroxychloroquine is not supported by science. He knows it has been flagged by people in his own administration” and called it a distraction from “his lack of a plan or real solutions.”

Cuomo had been using a version of the anti-malarial drug in his own treatment for coronavirus, according to posts about his treatment protocol written by his wife, Cristina, in her wellness magazine “The Purist.” (Cristina Cuomo Defends Use Of Bleach In Bathwater, Says She Is Feeling ‘So Much Better’)

In her week one post, Cristina Cuomo detailed all of the antivirals her husband took after he was diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 31, one of which was “potentized quinine,” taken “3x daily.”

In her second post, Cristina explained her usage of the drug.

“Potentized quinine (OXO); it’s derived from the nontoxic bark of Peruvian-grown quinine plants. It is a natural antibiotic (it’s being used in India with very good results). This is not on the market here; Dr. Lancaster has made this in her lab for 40 years, and I took this for my Lyme. (The medicine Plaquinol, which many doctors are using for COVID-19 is similar to quinine, but it has negative side effects.)”

Quinine is also an anti-malarial drug. Chloroquine is its synthetic derivative.

According to the Swiss-based Medicines for Malaria Venture, quinine was isolated by French chemists in 1820 from the bark of the cinchona tree found in South America. After being used for over a century as a treatment for fevers, chloroquine was developed from it by German scientists in 1934 and it later became a principle weapon in the WHO’s campaign for the global eradication of malaria following World War II. Both are still widely used as treatments for malaria and other diseases today.

Anti-malarial drugs like hydroxychloroquine, an analog of chloroquine, have been touted repeatedly by Trump as a potential treatment for COVID-19, which has drawn criticism from Democrats and members of the media. (RELATED: Chris Cuomo Lectures Protesters To ‘Think About Others’ After Reportedly Declining To Self-Quarantine In The Hamptons)