After weeks of relentless hype, Trump and Fox News have suddenly stopped talking about hydroxychloroquine. That's not an accident.

Trump and Fox News want to send their hydroxychloroquine hype down the memory hole

After weeks of hyping it as a potential coronavirus miracle drug, President Donald Trump and Fox News have suddenly lost faith in hydroxychloroquine.

A study of coronavirus patients in Veterans Affairs hospitals released Tuesday found more deaths among those treated with hydroxychloroquine than those treated with standard care. Researchers reported finding no benefit to its use.

The study, which the National Institutes of Health posted to its website and is the largest of its kind, was not peer-reviewed. The authors concluded more rigorous studies are needed before adopting widespread use of the drug.

Asked about the findings during the White House briefing hours after it was published, Trump dodged, saying “I don’t know of the report,” and tried to distance himself from the drug.

“We’ll be looking at it, we’ll have a comment on it at some point,” he said.

Those comments represented a remarkable reversal for Trump. Seemingly tantalized by the possibility of wriggling his way out of the coronavirus mess with the help of a miracle drug, the president urged coronavirus patients and their doctors to use hydroxychloroquine repeatedly earlier this month, saying things like “it’s looking like it’s having some good results,” “I haven’t heard a bad story,” “it doesn’t kill people,” and “I hope they use it because I’ll tell you what, what do you have to lose?”

While Trump hyped hydroxychloroquine during the briefings, Fox News hyped it morning, afternoon, and night. To cite just a couple of notable examples, trade adviser Peter Navarro went on Fox & Friends for an interview earlier this month in which he said of the debate between Trump and doctors, “I think history will judge who’s right on this debate, but I’d bet on President Trump’s intuition.” A guest on primetime host Laura Ingraham’s show went as far as to suggest the coronavirus outbreak was all but finished.

But just as Trump and Fox News have tried to do with the months-long period in January, February, and March in which they downplayed the coronavirus, they’re now trying to put their hydroxychloroquine hype down the memory hole. Trump himself, who used to hype the hydroxychloroquine "game changer" at every COVID-19 task force briefing has not mentioned it since the briefing of April 15th.

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