Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Early in April, before much data was in on potential COVID-19 treatments, President Trump promoted one that seemed to have anecdotal support. Hydroxychloroquine was suggested as a potential treatment very early on in the pandemic and had picked up some weak support via a badly flawed French study. That was enough for Trump to suggest people take it, his rhetorical “What do you have to lose?” question breezing past the well-known and potentially dangerous side effects of the drug.

In the time since, however, Trump went silent on the topic, and the evidence piled up that chloroquine did little while retaining its problematic side effects. But it returned to the spotlight on Monday when Trump announced he had been taking it, possibly in response to several cases among the White House staff. This naturally led to questions about why he was doing that in light of the research that has come out in the intervening weeks. Trump’s response was to label a study done by government researchers a “Trump-enemy statement.”

The chloroquine saga

Chloroquine and its derivatives, like hydroxychloroquine, were first developed as anti-malarial drugs. But they have a variety of effects on the body and have found a use through their role as immune suppressors, treating autoimmune diseases like lupus. In cultured cells, they show a relatively general antiviral activity, including the suppression of SARS-CoV-1. This led a number of teams to try chloroquine against SARS-CoV-2 early on in the pandemic. Notably, a French team released a draft study that seemed to show some promising results.