White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Wednesday night cited Trump supporter and Dilbert comic strip artist Scott Adams to make the case that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19.
“All right. Let me say this to you, OK?” Navarro told CNN host Erin Burnett during a discussion about the controversial anti-malarial drug. “I reach out to all your viewers. Scott Adams — you know Scott Adams, right? He's the guy who wrote the Dilbert cartoon. He did a beautiful 10-minute video on Twitter, and the thesis of the video is that CNN might be killing thousands because of the way they've treated [hydroxychloroquine]. So, I would just ask, I'll let Scott Adams' video be my defense on this.”
“Can I just say something? I find that to be offensive because he's a comic strip writer,” Burnett responded. “I just said that because I want to be clear. I just said Dr. Fauci, Dr. Brett Giroir, and Dr. Deborah Birx.”
The Hill reports: In the combative Wednesday interview, Navarro continued to push the drug as a coronavirus treatment, dismissing contradictory comments made by the nation's top public health expert and White House coronavirus task force member Anthony Fauci. “Tony is a great guy. There's just disagreements on things like, for example, hydroxychloroquine. He has a strong point of view. There's as many doctors on the other side,” Navarro said on CNN's “OutFront,” referring to Fauci. “But there aren't,” Burnett responded. “Peter, first of all, on a basic level, you're an economist, not a scientist,” she added.
More from the Daily Beast: Navarro, meanwhile, contended that Birx had not “come out against hydroxychloroquine,” prompting Burnett to play a clip of Birx saying that there's “no evidence that the drug improves those patients' outcomes, whether they have mild-to-moderate disease or whether they're seriously ill in the hospital.” The Trump aide, meanwhile, seemingly revealed the real reason he's so intent on pushing the drug even while the FDA has revoked its emergency use for coronavirus treatment. “Let me tell you why I got involved with this,” he barked. “I got involved with this because as a Defense Production Act coordinator I'm literally sitting on 63 million tablets, 63 million tablets, of hydroxychloroquine that would help possibly four million Americans stay alive. And so I've got that stake in the game.”
Watch the full interview below.
