The U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday cleared up a common misconception about the oft-cited “VA study” on the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, telling reporters that the VA did not conduct study, and furthermore, “on any given day, the VA uses 42,000 doses of the drug.”
Although it has been used safely to treat malaria and several other diseases for decades, the so-called “VA study” found increased mortality in the use of the drug to treat COVID-19 patients.
The corporate media in recent weeks has aggressively pushed an anti-hydroxychloroquine narrative, citing the study to brand the drug as unsafe and untested.
VA Sec. Robert Wilkie was asked about the notorious “VA study” during a cabinet meeting at the White House.
“Do you want to listen?” President Trump told the reporter as Wilkie began answer the question. “Because I don’t think you’re even listening.”
“I want to clear up something the media did not report accurately,” Wilkie said.
“That was not a VA study,” he explained. “Researchers took VA numbers and they did not clinically review them. They were not peer reviewed,” he stressed.
The secretary also noted that the researchers did not take into consideration the serious comorbidities that were already present in the patients.
Wilkie explained to the media that he had received “very clear” instructions from the president to do everything he could to “preserve and protect life.”
He added: “Those of us who have had a military life, some of us around this table, we’ve been taking this drug for years… the Department of Defense and VA have been using this drug for 65 years. On any given day the VA uses 42,000 doses of this drug. And what we did when this virus first hit us was to use every means to necessary to help preserve life.”
Wilkie also pointed out that they have been administering the drug to patients under the “Right to Try” law to protect life in consultation with the families of veterans and in consultation with our doctors under FDA guidelines.
“So I want to knock down the phony story that this is somehow the VA going back on what the president told us to do, which is to use every opportunity possible to protect and preserve lives of our veterans.”
https://youtu.be/74fVl05Op7Y