Facebook and Twitter have taken down a viral video retweeted by Donald Trump which claims that Dr Anthony Fauci misled the country on hydroxychloroquine.
The clip, which was originally posted by the right-wing news site Breitbart, featured four people who identified themselves as doctors speaking in front of the Supreme Court building.
One was Stella Immanuel, who claims to be a physician in Houston, and said hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug often touted by Trump, was a cure for COVID-19.
She attacked ‘fake doctors’ who doubt the efficacy of the drug, and claimed it’s a ‘cure’, adding ‘you don’t need a mask.’
‘If some fake science comes out and says we’ve done studies and they found out that it doesn’t work, I can tell you categorically it’s fake science,’ she said.
‘I want to know who’s conducted that study and who’s behind it. Because there is no way I have treat 350 patients and counting and nobody is dead.’
She said she has treated patients with hydroxychloroquine along with zinc, and the antibiotic zithromax.
The Breitbart video was viewed at least 14 million times by Monday afternoon.
Facebook appeared to be the first social media site to pull the clip from its site.
It had become one of the top performing posts on Facebook. with nearly 600,000 shares before it was taken down Monday night for promoting misinformation, according to Crowdtangle, a data-analytics firm owned by Facebook.
A Facebook spokesperson told CNN: ‘We’ve removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.’
The spokesperson added Facebook is ‘showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.’
Read Also: Hydroxychloroquine Is Cure For Coronavirus – Nigerian Doctor
Trump and his son’s retweets featuring the video were later removed by Twitter.
Twitter said early Tuesday morning, ‘Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.’
The president’s Twitter timeline displayed the message: ‘This Tweet is no longer available.’
Trump went into a Twitter frenzy on Monday night, retweeting a series of posts – including the Breitbart video.
In his Twitter spree Trump retweeted a post that claimed Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, is leading the country in the wrong direction by refusing to endorse the use of the anti-malaria drug in combating COVID-19.
Trump was a big promoter of hydroxychloroquine and repeatedly pushed it as a therapeutic treatment for the coronavirus, which has infected over 4.2million in the US and killed more than 148,000, even though the Federal Drug Administration warns the drug has harmful side effects.
‘Dr. Fauci has misled the American public on many issues, but in particular, on dismissing #hydroxychloroquine and calling Remdesivir the new gold standard,’ the retweet said.
The president has come under pressure for his handling of the coronavirus crisis and in recent weeks has tried rectify his reputation by holding solo coronavirus briefings, canceling some campaign events, and wearing a mask in public.
He has returned to preach about the benefits of the drug which he famously took for two weeks as a preventative measure against the virus.
However, the Federal Drug Administration stopped recommending emergency use of hydroxycholoquine citing safety concerns about harmful side effects.
In May the World Health Organization stopped its hydroxychloroquine trial. The National Institutes for Health similarly halted their trial in June after determining it provided ‘no benefit’ in the patients studied.
Immanuel’s claims are contrary to the extensive tests that have been done regarding the drug.
Video of her fiery speech was shared on Twitter, where it racked up over 14 million views on Monday – partly due to the promotion by far-right news organizations.
CNN’s Oliver Darcy was among the first to notice that the videos have been removed, tweeting: ‘Videos Trump shared are now no longer available.’
‘While Twitter reviews the video, it’s worth noting that various versions of it have received hundreds of thousands of views on this platform and more than one has been retweeted to the public by the President of the United States,’ he added.
‘I have not misled the American public – and I don’t read Donald Trump’s tweets!’ Dr. Fauci dismisses president’s tweet storm accusing him of lying about hydroxychloroquine
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday morning dismissed President Donald Trump’s Monday night rant accusing him of ‘misleading’ Americans regarding antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
‘I don’t know how to address that,’ the nation’s top immunologist told Good Morning America regarding the president’s Twitter storm.
‘I’m just going to, certainly, continue doing my job.
‘I, you know, I don’t tweet, I don’t – I don’t even read them,’ Fauci, 79, told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos.
‘So I don’t really want to go there.’
Trump went on a Twitter frenzy Monday night, including retweets of posts claiming Fauci lied to the country regarding hydroxychloroquine, which the president revealed he has taken as a preventative measure to stop him from contracting coronavirus.
Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, pushed back Tuesday morning: ‘I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.’
The president’s Twitter storm included reposts of videos of a doctor who claimed the anti-Malaria drug is a ‘cure’ for COVID-19.
Several of the tweets he shared with his 84 million followers, however, were taken down by Twitter citing misinformation regulations.
Facebook and YouTube also removed video of Dr. Stella Immanuel’s speech outside the Capitol.
The president’s insistence that the drug does work come as the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for controlling and regulating all prescription and over-the-counter medications, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, said hydroxychloroquine is ‘unlikely to be effective’ in treating the virus.
‘I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it’s very important,’ Fauci said Tuesday. ‘We’re in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic – a pandemic. This is what I do, this is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life and I’ll continue to do it.’
Fauci has advised six presidents since joining the National Institute of Health in 1984.
In Trump’s Twitter spree he shared a post that claims Fauci is leading the country in the wrong direction by refusing to endorse hydroxychloroquine in combating the virus.
Trump has often promoted the drug, repeatedly pushing it as a therapeutic treatment, even though the FDA warns the drug has harmful side effects and in June revoked an emergency authorization for its use to treat coronavirus.
‘Dr. Fauci has misled the American public on many issues, but in particular, on dismissing #hydroxychloroquine and calling Remdesivir the new gold standard,’ the retweet said.
Fauci, once a fixture at the White House briefing room podium toward the start of the pandemic, has not yet been invited back for Trump’s rebooted task force briefings.
Trump and Fauci have often butted heads over how to respond to the health crisis and eventually, the president sidelined the nation’s top immunologist from the press conferences altogether.
Reports emerged of tensions between the two, and Fauci could be seen physically recoiling from some of the president’s remarks – including smirking and face-palming.
AFP
