Fauci: Trump got hydroxychloroquine treatment idea from Laura Ingraham

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as a top medical adviser to former President Trump during the coronavirus pandemic, says Trump got the idea of promoting hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for the virus from Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

“I believe he wanted so badly for this to go away the way influenza goes away, and when he saw it was not going away, then he was hoping for some magical solution, and he even used those words, ‘It’s going to go away like magic,’” Fauci said during an interview Tuesday on MSNBC. “And then when that didn’t work, then we had to have these miracle cures like hydroxychloroquine, which he got from Laura Ingraham on Fox News.”

Fauci’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.

During the pandemic, Trump promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential “cure” for those infected with the virus despite warnings from medical officials at the time the drug was unproven and could come with side effects.

A study published earlier this year by French researchers found nearly 17,000 people across six countries may have died because they took hydroxychloroquine during the first wave of the pandemic.

After Fauci made his comments about Trump’s views on the drug on Tuesday, Ingraham hosted Dr. Scott Atlas on her program, who blasted Fauci.

“If it weren’t so morally repugnant to watch him, it would be comical. Let’s be very clear here, Fauci’s legacy is presiding over the biggest failure, the most immoral disaster of public health fiasco in history with his sidekick Deborah Birx,” Atlas said. “And their legacy is very clear. It’s not just the millions of people damaged, harmed and killed by his policies. It’s not just the long-lasting damage on children, particularly, poor kids. It’s also bigger things like personally destroying the trust in science and public health guidance. I’m not sure that’s even reparable.”

Fauci has been a top target of the political right since the pandemic, and he has repeatedly said he blames his critics for the regular death threats he receives.