State Sen. Joe Pennacchio urged New Jersey to follow the course set by the Food and Drug Administration and begin using hydroxychloroquine to treat those infected with COVID-19.
“Our nation, and the entire world, is in the grasp of an unprecedented health crisis,” Pennacchio said. “While New Jersey waits on the federal government for ‘proof’ HCQ is effective, police officers, doctors and nurses are being infected. People are getting sicker and dying. HCQ has been proven safe in 70 years of use. We cannot afford to sit on our hands while this virus takes such a devastating toll on us all.”
The FDA on Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for HCQ and chloroquine, a more toxic version of the drug, for treating the novel coronavirus.
The drugs, which have been championed by President Donald Trump, remain untested but could be pulled from the Strategic National Stockpile.
Health officials in New York and at the World Health Organization, among other places, are conducting studies to determine how effective HCQ is at treating COVID-19, though those studies are still relatively nascent.
Pennacchio is an honorary chairman of Trump’s New Jersey re-election campaign.