The FDA has approved it as a prescription drug. You shouldn't use a prescription drug unless you have a doctor telling you to. A doctor would know to look for the side effects and contraindications of quinine (of which there are many).

Obviously, self medicating a prescription drug is irresponsible. None of what the president says changes that. He said the FDA approved it. Independent of the truth value of that statement, it would still be approved of as a prescription drug.

The FDA has not approved it as a prescription drug for Covid-19. It's approved for malaria.

That's not really relevant. A physician can lawfully prescribe it today for COVID-19 despite not being FDA approved for that indication because it's approved for other indications. This is called off-label use. What FDA approval for treating COVID-19 would mean is that the drug could be marketed for such use. In a pandemic, I don't think that's a major consideration.

It absolutely is relevant. A layperson will hear "chloroquine works on Covid-19. The FDA's approved it. The President himself said so."

Luckily a lay person cannot get medical grade chloroquine. They can purchase a chemical to use in aquariums, but that is not medication. Those chemicals are not regulated, and may contain all sorts of other compounds that could kill humans, or have an incorrect amount of chloroquine.

Sorry, no matter what the president says, self-medicating is nuts.

> self-medicating is nuts.

Agreed.

> no matter what the president says,

That doesn't mean giving prominent authority figures a pass on outright falsehoods. He said the FDA approved chloroquine to be prescribed for Covid-19. The FDA said they had not done that.

> That doesn't mean giving prominent authority figures a pass on outright falsehoods. He said the FDA approved chloroquine to be prescribed for Covid-19. The FDA said they had not done that.

It doesn't matter, because chloroquine is already FDA approved to treat COVID 19. Let me explain: chloroquine is an FDA approved drug for malaria, which means doctors can prescribe it for whatever they want. It has been approved as a legal prescription drug and doctors can prescribe anything for any reason whatsoever.

That does not mean it's now okay to take it without a prescription.

It’s obviously nuts to take medical advice from Donald Trump. However, some people will do it, which makes it irresponsible to give such advice, even obliquely.

He didn't give medical advice. He was talking about what the FDA and what hospitals could do. There wasn't oblique advice in the slightest.

> He was talking about what the FDA and what hospitals could do

And even that information was wrong. That's the point I'm trying to make.

Thankfully Trump didn't say to take it. He said doctors can prescribe it. Doctors know what dosage is safe (and there is a safe dosage, since quinines are sold at the grocery store all the time), and what contraindications there may be for certain dosages. Your aquarium cleaner box does not.