Last Updated on July 29, 2020
During yesterday’s briefing on the Kodak pharmaceutical manufacturing onshoring deal, Trump was asked about one of the physicians, Dr. Stella Immanuel, an outspoken pediatric and emergency room doctor who delivered a passionate speech about her success with hydroxychloroquine treatment, having successfully treated 350 of her patients with the decades-old drug.
President Trump called Immanuel “an important voice” and lauded her use of hydroxychloroquine, saying that while he knew nothing about her, he thought she was a “very impressive” physician.
Reporters asked Trump to clarify his position on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as well as his retweet of the doctor.
He responded, “I wasn’t making claims. It’s recommendations of many other people including doctors, many doctors think it’s extremely successful, the hydroxychloroquine coupled with the zinc and perhaps the azithromycin, but many doctors thinks it’s extremely good, some people don’t.”
“I think it’s become very political, I happen to believe in it,” said the president. “I would take it, as you know I took it for a 14 day period and I’m here, right? I’m here.”
The president noted that many physicians say hydroxychloroquine works best “in the early stages” of COVID-19.
“The front line medical people believe that,” said President Trump. “The one thing we know, it’s been out for a long time that particular formula and that’s essentially what it is, the pill and it’s been for malaria, lupus, and other things, it’s safe, it doesn’t cause problems.”
“I’ve read a lot about hydroxychloroquine,” the president added. “There were some very good tests at the Ford and the doctor from Yale came up with a very, very strong testament to it – there was a group of doctors yesterday – a large group were put on the internet and for some reason the internet wanted to take them down, and took them off I guess Twitter took them off and I think Facebook took them off – I don’t know why, I think they’re very respected doctors.”
About Immanuel specifically, the president said that she “Was was spectacular in her statements about it that she’s has tremendous success with it.”
President Trump then questioned why social media companies would ban her and the other doctors who went viral when speaking in Washington, D.C.
“They took her voice off, I don’t know why they took her off, but they took her, maybe they had a good reason, maybe they didn’t,” said President Trump. “I can only say that from my standpoint and based on a lot of reading and a lot of knowledge about it, I think it could have a very positive impact in the early stages and I don’t think you lose anything by doing it other than politically it doesn’t seem to be too popular. You know why? Because I recommend it. When I recommend something, they like to say don’t use it.”
Another reporter asked the president specifically about Immanuel, noting controversial statements she made over the years at her religious ministry, Fire Power Ministries.
“I can tell you this: She was on air along with many other doctors, they were big fans of hydroxychloroquine, and I thought she was very impressive,” said President Trump, “In the sense that from where she came, I don’t know from which country she comes from, but she’s said that she’s had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients and I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”
National File previously reported that Immanuel was part of America’s Frontline Doctors Summit, where a group of physicians spoke in Washington, D.C. about their experiences treating COVID-19 patients. Their videos about successful hydroxychloroquine treatment have since been banned from most social media platforms, and their website was taken down after they went viral.
In an even more shocking move, Twitter removed Tweets by the president, one of which was a retweeted video of Dr. Immanuel’s testament to hydroxychloroquine treatment, along with suspending Donald Trump, Jr. when he tweeted a video of the viral doctor’s summit.
