In May, Trump donated 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil. Most have gone untouched and may have to be destroyed.

The Trump administration's donation of 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil -- one of a handful of countries that still recommend the drug for Covid-19 -- has been mostly untouched since arrival, Brazilian officials have told CNN. Vast quantities of the pills are still sitting in storage in the Brazilian megacity of São Paulo, and one former health minister believes they may eventually have to be destroyed.

The pills' fate in Brazil is appropriate given their medical uselessness against Covid-19: Study after study has shown hydroxychloroquine does not work to treat the coronavirus, and may be harmful. Yet Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro insists that hydroxychloroquine helped him recover from a two-week infection, and Brazil's health ministry advises that doctors prescribe the drug to treat mild cases, even for pregnant women. Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus infections in the country is skyrocketing.

The medication arrived in Brazil on May 31. At the time, the White House said the delivery -- issued when several studies had already shown the drug was ineffective against Covid-19, if not dangerous -- would "be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil's nurses, doctors and health care professionals against the virus. It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected." It also said the drug would be part of a study there, and ventilators would also be donated.

The delivery soon went into storage near São Paulo's airport, Renato Strauss, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said. Two months later, the pills are still being held in a logistics center, according to Strauss.

Following scientific guidance, many Brazilian doctors have stopped prescribing hydroxychloroquine despite the government's enthusiasm for it. But in a sign of how pervasive Bolsonaro's backing for the drug has been, a recent survey of doctors across Brazil reported that half of them felt pressured by patients to give the ineffective drug.
A former health minister, Luiz Mandetta, fired by Bolsonaro in April partly over the President's support of hydroxychloroquine, described public demand for hydroxychloroquine as "false hope". He said the President knew from the start that science didn't back his choice of drug, although Bolsonaro has recently insisted it medically aided him.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Brasilia declined to answer questions and referred further queries to the White House, which did not respond to emails.

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