Trump's use of malaria drug likely to be welcomed in India
India TodayPresident Donald Trump's declaration that he was taking a malaria drug of dubious effectiveness to help fend off the coronavirus will likely be welcomed in India. Trump's previous endorsement of hydroxychloroquine catalyzed a tremendous shift in the South Asian country, spurring the world's largest producer of the drug to make much more of it, prescribe it for front-line health workers treating the virus and deploy it as a diplomatic tool, despite mounting evidence against using the drug for Covid-19. Still, India's policy on the decades-old drug, used to prevent malaria and treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, drastically changed after Trump tweeted in March that the drug, used together with an antibiotic, could be "game changers" in the fight against the pandemic. A US study of 368 patients in veterans' hospitals, the largest study yet examining the malaria drug's value as a coronavirus antidote, found no benefits and even more deaths among those given the drug.