CDC updates website to remove dosage guidance on drug touted by Trump

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removed guidance from its website regarding drugs touted by President Trump as possible treatments for the coronavirus amid disputes over their effectiveness.

The CDC had initially included guidance regarding dosage for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, the drugs recommended by Trump, noting that anecdotal evidence existed for their effectiveness.

“Although optimal dosing and duration of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 are unknown, some U.S. clinicians have reported anecdotally different hydroxychloroquine dosing,” read the original guidance before including the dosage examples.

However, the CDC’s website, which was updated Tuesday, no longer includes that statement, instead stating that the drugs “are under investigation in clinical trials” to be used on patients infected with the coronavirus.

The website now notes that “there are no drugs or other therapeutics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to prevent or treat COVID-19.”

The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill regarding the change. The removal was first reported by Reuters.

The update comes as medical experts express skepticism over Trump’s confidence in the drugs, which he suggested he may take himself and was touting as recently as a Tuesday night interview on Fox News.

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned last week that there currently isn’t any “strong” evidence that hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, has proven effective in the coronavirus fight. 

“We don’t operate on how you feel, we operate on what evidence and data is,” Fauci said, adding that it was “not a very robust study” or “overwhelmingly strong.”