Rep. Andy Biggs urges President Trump, Melania Trump to take hydroxychloroquine to fight COVID-19

After President Donald Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis, Rep. Andy Biggs recommended the president and first lady take hydroxychloroquine, though it is unclear whether doctors advise doing so.

In a tweet on Friday, Biggs, R-Ariz., a staunch Trump defender and member of the House Science Committee, offered a video message in which he also said Trump had taken appropriate steps to reduce his risk of infection.

Biggs' advice is contrary to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump's behavior is under renewed scrutiny after months of rarely wearing a mask and recent travel that included an event in New Jersey on Thursday after his adviser Hope Hicks had been diagnosed as positive.

"Those on the left are dancing in the streets. They like to see this type of thing happen, but the reality is none of us should be happy that any of us get sick or have any dangers," Biggs said during the video.

In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Biggs, who heads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he was referring to ugly posts on social media that delighted in Trump's illness, not comments from any public officials. 

There was no shortage of Twitter users, for example, suggesting Trump's infection is "karma" for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Polling shows most Americans, including Arizonans, give Trump poor marks for a problem that has killed more than 200,000 in the U.S. and sickened 7 million more.

Biggs also offered medical treatment advice for Trump and first lady Melania Trump different than prescribed by the House attending physician who treated Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., after his bout with the virus this summer. Previously, Biggs has been criticized by medical professionals for dispensing questionable COVID-19-related health advice on social media and for urging Arizona to "unmask." 

Biggs on Friday recommended the Trumps take hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug Trump said he took months ago to prevent infection from the coronavirus.

"I encourage them to get on the regimen that so many experts and doctors around the world have relied on," Biggs said. "The observational studies, more than 50, have indicated that early detection of the COVID can best be treated with the hydroxychloroquine, zinc and Z-pack regimen. I hope that they're able to get that speedy recovery."

The Food and Drug Administration determined in June that the drug posed a heart risk to some patients and that it was ineffective in treating COVID-19. That guidance remains in effect.

"Based on its ongoing analysis of the (emergency use authorization) and emerging scientific data, the FDA determined that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 for the authorized uses in the EUA," the agency said at the time.

"Additionally, in light of ongoing serious cardiac adverse events and other potential serious side effects, the known and potential benefits of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for the authorized use."

Biggs said in the interview that other studies have shown the drug seems to work, especially for those in the early stages of combating the virus.

He noted in particular the findings of the Henry Ford Health System that found "a safe dosage and early utilization of hydroxychloroquine reduced mortality in hospitalized patients."

That report generated concern from other medical professionals, in part because it didn't involve a double-blind, randomized clinical trial that accounts for more of the variables that affect outcomes.

"While feeling the same sense of urgency everyone else does to recognize a simple, single remedy for COVID-19, we need to be realistic in the time it takes to fully understand the optimal therapy or combination of therapies required of a new virus we are all trying to contain," executives with Henry Ford said after their findings were published.

Others, such as Grijalva, who is the only known member of Arizona's congressional delegation to have had COVID, dismissed Biggs' hydroxychloroquine recommendation.

The House physician who treated him never offered it, Grijalva said.

"Mr. Biggs has a problem. He's in a catch-22. He's been ridiculing and minimizing the need for us to take measures to keep the threat from happening, and now, the person that he followed, President Trump, is suddenly infected with the virus," Grijalva said. "I don't know how he rationalizes anything other than the best medical care that the president can get — and that does not include some quack theories ... about how to recover."

Biggs, who pushed the "Right to Try" legislation that Trump signed into law in 2018, said Trump is free to use the drug if he thinks that makes sense for him, just as others, such as Grijalva, are free not to do so.

"He's entitled to his opinion, but it's not quack medicine," Biggs said. "This is probably the first medicine that we've had health care bureaucrats prohibit off-label prescriptions for a medicine that the FDA said is safe, and that many, many doctors have said seems to have some salutary effect." 

Biggs also sought to shield Trump from those who see his infection as the result of a reckless approach to the pandemic.

"One thing I'll say about the president: He understood the risks. He understands what we all understand as Americans that in order to have freedom, there's some risks. He did what he could to mitigate those risks." 

It's a message that isn't cutting it with Biggs' Democratic opponent, Joan Greene.

"Biggs does not have any medical training and he is using his office and position to further a false narrative that puts lives at risk," she said in a statement. "Freedom is not at risk, but lives are. The responsibility of all elected officials is to protect, and to do that we must rely on the science and the experts."

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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