President Donald Trump is attempting to fast-track a treatment for the global Coronavirus pandemic that has brought nearly the entire economy to a screeching halt.
The president gave his approval for the U.S. taking a stake in the equity of companies that are taking Coronavirus related bailouts. He did this on the condition that said companies be prevented from getting into stock buybacks or in boosting bonuses for executives.
Trump said about buybacks and executive bonus boosting, “We don’t want that. Some companies, as you know, did stock buybacks. It’s very hard to tell them not to but I would tell them not to.”
When the president was asked whether he believed current conditions encouraged companies to do these things, he said it would take a great amount of effort to police these kinds of behaviors, but that he wanted to prevent these kinds of opportunistic behaviors.
He added, “They bought back stock and paid a high price for it, as it turned out. I view that as a little bit differently than somebody that built plants all over the United States — of which there were plenty of them too.”
Earlier this week, the president made a claim that the FDA had approved an anti-malaria medicine as a treatment for COVID-19. By late Friday evening, however, an FDA spokesperson said that that was not the case and that no such approval has been given.
At the time that the president made that statement, all of the pertinent reports were indicating that anti-malaria drugs were effective, and could cure the Coronavirus in three to six days.
Earlier on Saturday the 21st, Trump said that he was open to virus-related bailouts being based on restrictions from the companies that receive them- including those mentioned above.
On Thursday, Trump said that a number of new medications are now approved by the FDA and can be used immediately for the treatment of the Coronavirus. He commented that he was pushing for the “right to try” for those with extreme cases of COVID-19 (the disease caused by the Coronavirus).
This is a throwback to some of Trump’s early campaign promises in which he spoke of the need to let those in dire medical circumstances to try experimental drugs or drugs that had not been proven for the given purpose. This is seen as especially important by the President in cases where the alternative to unproven treatments means the patient will not have access to any treatment at all.
Further approvals announced by the president include CHLOROQUINE for use against COVID-19, and what he calls “compassionate use” for some patients. He also announced that trials for new drugs have now begun and that promising treatments have been produced by Gilead.
At present, the Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA is pushing back against Trump’s anti-Coronavirus agenda. Hopefully, clinical trials can begin quickly so that the medical community can finally begin flattening the curve and bringing an end to the worst pandemic in modern history.
