By Mark Moore, New York Post, August 23, 2020
The White House is touting a “breakthrough” on a coronavirus therapeutic that President Trump will announce in a news conference Sunday evening.
“News conference with President @realDonaldTrump at 6 pm tomorrow concerning a major therapeutic breakthrough on the China Virus. Secretary Azar and Dr. Hahn will be in attendance,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany posted on Twitter late Saturday night.
Trump will make the announcement alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and the director of the Food and Drug Administration Stephen Hahn.
Earlier Saturday, Trump accused the FDA of delaying possible coronavirus treatments to disrupt his re-election campaign.
“The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!,” Trump tweeted.
The FDA last week stopped an emergency approval for blood plasma as a treatment for the disease.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s comments “very dangerous.”
“The FDA has a responsibility to approve drugs, judging on their safety and their efficacy, not by a declaration from the White House about speed and politicizing the FDA,” Pelosi during a news conference Saturday on Capitol Hill.
“This was a very dangerous statement on the part of the president. Even for him, it went beyond the pale in terms of how he would jeopardize the health and well-being of the American people,” she continued.
In another Tweet on Saturday, Trump said “many doctors and studies disagree” with the FDA “revoking emergency use authorization” of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven anti-malarial drug the president has pitched as a possible coronavirus treatment.
