Wire actor says hydroxychloroquine ‘almost killed one of my employees’ and suggests Trump has financial stake

Actor cited 1970s vaccine trial that saw people die after FDA dismissed concerns

Wendell Pierce, who played a leading role in revered HBO series The Wire, has warned Donald Trump that taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to stave off coronavirus could be lethal.

Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that he’s been taking the drug for “a few weeks”, inviting a backlash from those who pointed out the drug has been found to be ineffective and perhaps even dangerous in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

Among those condemning the president’s pharmaceutical choices was Mr Pierce. “The President lies and then the next day his government becomes complicit in the deception,” he wrote in a tweet. “Hydroxchloroquine almost killed one of my employees. The risk is dangerous, Mr. President. You must have a financial stake in this drug you keep pushing.”

In subsequent tweets, Mr Pierce also wrote that there is historical precedent for US government agencies reining in trials of drugs that may pose fatal risks to those taking them.

“A notable aspect of the 1976 swine flu vaccine is that a FDA researcher who raised questions about the safety of that vaccine was dismissed for insubordination. But the Ford Administration proceeded nonetheless with the vaccine as part of a national immunisation program.

“Merck & other vaccine manufacturers incredibly were indemnified against any liability. Some vaccinated folk had serious complications & some died, after which the national immunisation program was discontinued. That’s a debacle that I’m doubtful the FDA will want to repeat.”

Mr Trump, who has previously denied investing in the drug’s production, said he is taking the drug because “a young man close to me” – a White House valet – has tested positive, as has Mike Pence press secretary Katie Miller. However, he is not taking the widely advised precautionary measure of wearing a mask, even though most of the White House staff are now doing so.

Hydroxychloroquine was aggressively promoted by both Mr Trump and many hosts on sympathetic cable network Fox News during the earlier stages of the pandemic. However, the drug fell out of favour even with them when research emerged showing its effects on Covid-19 patients were either negligible or even fatal.

However, Mr Trump on Tuesday dismissed one of the most widely covered studies as a political attack on him. “That was a false study done,” he told a press briefing. “Where they gave it to very sick people. Extremely sick people. People that were ready to die. It was given by obviously not friends of the administration.”