WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump indicated Wednesday that he will finish his preventative hydroxychloroquine regimen “in a day or two.”

“I think it’s two days. Two days,” Trump said from the Cabinet Room at the White House. 

Trump had announced Monday that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug that he’s repeatedly touted as a treatment for coronavirus despite warnings about its effectiveness, as a prophylaxis against the coronavirus.

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Trump, who said he has tested negative for COVID-19, stated Monday he had been taking the drug daily for about a week and a half as an added measure to avoid getting the coronavirus. He said the White House physician “didn’t recommend” hydroxychloroquine but offered it to him. 

Hydroxychloroquine is an arthritis medicine that can also be used as a prevention or treatment of malaria, , as well as treatment for lupus, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s available in the U.S. under prescription only.

Trump’s claim stirred up a storm online and on cable television, with an array of doctors, journalists and politicians issuing stern warnings to others after the president’s revelation, pointing out the drug’s ineffectiveness against the coronavirus in a few recent studies and long list of potentially dangerous side effects. 

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On Tuesday, Trump seemingly dismissed a study involving 368 patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 treated at Veterans Health Administration medical centers that found there were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine than those receiving standard care. In addition, the drug made no difference in the need for ventilators.

Trump described the study as “the only bad survey” and a “Trump enemy statement” and said it involved patients who were “almost dead.”

The FDA has cautioned that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, a related drug, be limited to people in clinical trials, which are carefully overseen, or who are hospitalized, due to concerns about the potentially dangerous adverse effects.

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“Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19,” the FDA warned. Both can cause abnormal heart rhythms and a dangerously rapid heart rate, the statement said.

There’s no data so far on how to use hydroxychloroquine as a preventative to coronavirus, so it is unclear why Trump says he will stop taking the drug if he believes it could work as a prophylaxis. USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for comment. 

The White House has been taking extra precautions to ensure the safety of the president and his staff after a few administration aides tested positive for the coronavirus.

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In his own telling, Trump raised the idea of taking hydroxychloroquine with White House physician Sean Conley – not the other way around. Trump said he asked Conley, “What do you think?” and the physician responded, “Well, if you’d like it.” 

Conley released a statement Monday asserting that “the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks” and he noted that one of the president’s valets had tested positive for the virus. The White House confirmed that the valet had tested positive on May 7. 

If Trump stops hydroxychloroquine this Friday, it would be on the 14 day mark from when Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary and the wife of Stephen Miller, a Trump senior adviser, tested positive for coronavirus. 

Contributing: John Fritze, Elizabeth Weise, Adrianna Rodriguez, Courtney Subramanian

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