Irresponsible: Nevada Governor Bars Anti-Malaria Drugs For Coronavirus Treatment

The governor of Nevada has barred the use of anti-malaria drugs within the state after President Donald Trump said that the medication could be used as treatment for COVID-19.

Democratic Nevada Gov. Stephen F. Sisolak signed an emergency order Tuesday barring the use of the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for treating patients diagnosed with the coronavirus, the Associated Press reports. The governor, who did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation, reasoned that neither experts nor Nevada doctors have a consensus on whether the drugs can treat coronavirus patients.

His order came just days after Trump announced that the Federal Drug Administration is waiving “outdated rules and bureaucracies” to test various “anti-viral therapies” that may combat the virus. This includes malaria drugs.

“It’s shown very encouraging early results, and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately,” the president said. “And that’s where the FDA has been so great.”

A nationwide shortage of the drugs is reportedly spurred by doctors prescribing the medication for themselves and for their families, ProPublica reports.

“It’s disgraceful, is what it is. And completely selfish,” Executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association Garth Reynolds told the publication. The Illinois Pharmacists Association began receiving emails and calls from members on Saturday who warned that they were receiving questionable prescriptions, ProPublica reports.

Reynolds told the publication that the IPA has begun efforts to urge doctors against this.

“We even had a couple of examples of prescribers trying to say that the individual they were calling in for had rheumatoid arthritis,” he said. “I mean, that’s fraud.”