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President Donald Trump once again touted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. This time, the president falsely claimed that “people with lupus” who take hydroxychloroquine “aren’t catching this horrible virus.”
While it’s too early to say whether or not hydroxychloroquine has any protective effects, it’s not true that no lupus patients have developed the disease. In fact, the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance’s registry of COVID-19 patients with rheumatologic disease had 110 validated patients, as of April 2, and 17% of them have lupus.
“We can say that this drug is likely not 100% effective in preventing or treating COVID, and that SLE [systemic lupus erythematosus] patients should not let their guard down,” Dr. Jean Liew, administrative lead for the alliance, told us in an email.