Trump Still Promoting Untested Malaria Drug As Coronavirus 'Game Changer' Despite Dr. Fauci's Objection, FDA Denials

President Trump on Saturday continued to hype an anti-malaria drug as a cure for coronavirus, drawing heavy criticism from health experts on social media.

“HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You!” Trump tweeted. “Hopefully they will BOTH…be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE!”

Trump on Saturday also retweeted an entrepreneur who posted that "A French study has demonstrated evidence that the combination of Hydroxychloroquine & Azithromycin are highly effective in treating Covid-19."

The tweets came after Trump declared at a briefing Thursday the well-known anti-malaria drug chloroquine was a “game changer” and inaccurately said the drug had been "approved" to treat COVID-19.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked Friday as to whether the treatment was guaranteed to be effective in curing coronavirus.

“The answer is no,” Fauci said. “The information that you’re referring to specifically is anecdotal. It was not done in a controlled clinical trial. So you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.”

After Trump said that the Food and Drug Administration "approved" use of the anti-malaria drug to treat coronavirus patients and that the government would make the drug available "almost immediately," FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn contradicted Trump, saying "a large, pragmatic clinical trial" is needed first and didn't set a timeline.

A coronavirus vaccine is estimated to be a year away.

Trump’s tweets on Saturday drew a swift rebuke.

Breakfast Media White House reporter Andrew Feinberg called Trump’s comments “ignorant snake oil drivel.”

“Azithromycin is an ANTIBIOTIC,” Feinberg continued. “Antibiotics are NOT effective against VIRUSES. He might as well tweet about colloidal silver.”

“President spreading super dangerous misinformation that will make crisis worse,” Microsoft Research economist David Rothschild tweeted. “What President claimed is untested, not approved, and possibly dangerous. Please do not listen to this madman, listen to trained medical professionals: he will get people killed.”

Trump has frequently taken an optimistic view of the coronavirus emergency, claiming that the U.S. economy would recover quickly due to pent-up demand once the pandemic subsides. There are more than 22,177 coronavirus cases in the U.S., with the domestic death toll reaching at least 278.