President Trump shared video later taken down for peddling 'false information' about COVID-19

A video disseminating misinformation about COVID-19 garnered over 14 million views on Facebook before it was removed by the social network and other platforms. Yahoo News Medical Contributor Dr. Dara Kass debunks some of the video's false claims.

Video Transcript

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DARA KASS: You may have seen a recent video that went online. A bunch of doctors calling themselves America's front-line doctors stood in front of the Supreme Court and held a press conference.

This video has been taken down by YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, but it still exists in the internet, so we are going to debunk it. These doctors claim that hydroxychloroquine is a cure for the coronavirus. And because they have a cure, they believe that people don't need to wear masks.

First of all, there are patients who have received hydroxychloroquine who have unfortunately passed away from the coronavirus. We've seen that in anecdotes and in studies. So the idea that hydroxychloroquine cures the coronavirus is just false. Doctors are trying to figure out if it's useful in the prevention or the treatment of the coronavirus, COVID-19, but at this point, there is no recommendation to give hydroxychloroquine and, in fact, we have seen more harm than good come from the studies that have been published so far.

Moreover, there is no evidence that by taking hydroxychloroquine, you don't need to wear a mask. We need to encourage mask-wearing for every American, everywhere, all the time, regardless of whether or not they've even had the coronavirus. So even if you were cured of the coronavirus, we would still tell you to wear a mask.

The people that are generating these videos are doing it because they want to be on television. They want to be the center of the conversation. This conversation is not about them. It's about you and your family. The best thing you can do is wear a mask, wash your hands, and stay six feet apart from people you don't know, and continue to listen to the people in your life that you trust and that are following good science.