A former White House adviser who pushed malaria drugs as a treatment for COVID-19 long after the FDA had ruled them out has been tapped to join the Department of Health and Human Services’ pandemic response team.
Virologist Steven J. Hatfill has been brought on as a special adviser in the director’s office at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the agency that prepares for disasters such as pandemics and biological and chemical attacks, The Washington Post reported.
During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Hatfill, a former Army biodefense researcher, teamed up with President Donald Trump’s then-trade representative Peter Navarro, who also worked on the pandemic response team, to promote hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for treating COVID-19.
At the time, the Food and Drug Administration allowed emergency use of the drugs and began tracking the health of people taking the medicines. But already by April 2020, the FDA had warned health care professionals to avoid using them because patients taking the drugs experienced higher rates of potentially fatal heart problems, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Two months later, the agency revoked its emergency approval altogether, saying the benefits did not outweigh the risks. Subsequent studies found that hydroxychloroquine did not prevent infection or effectively treat COVID-19, according to Mayo.
Hatfill, however, still maintains that the drugs work.
In early 2020, the White House ordered the government to fill federal stockpiles with millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine, which is also used to treat lupus and other autoimmune disorders.
Even after the FDA had withdrawn its approval, officials distributed hydroxychloroquine to hospitals and pharmacies, according to the Post.
When Anthony Fauci, who at the time was head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there was no evidence the drug fought the coronavirus, Navarro and Hatfill teamed up to attack him in a series of angry emails.
Now Hatfill is joining HHS to “help get us ready for the next pandemic,” he told the Post. He still believes hydroxychloroquine is safe and effective against the coronavirus, based on “5,000 controlled, randomized studies” that were peer-reviewed, he said.
He is also a proponent of the parasite drug ivermectin, another debunked “remedy” for the coronavirus.
Hatfill’s role involves developing “complete awareness of the scientific literature, not just for influenza, bird flu or covid but other global diseases that could represent a threat to the U.S.,” he said.
The HHS did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
Before he worked for the Trump administration, Hatfill was investigated for years as a “person of interest” in the anthrax attacks that began soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Over several weeks, letters containing anthrax spores were sent to the offices of three Democratic senators, killing five people and sickening 17.
Hatfill’s home was raided repeatedly by the FBI, his phone was tapped, and he was surveilled for more than two years. Eventually he was cleared, and the government paid him $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from the case.
In November 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, he helped spearhead the effort in Arizona and Nevada to overturn former President Joe Biden’s election victory.
At that point, “election stuff” took precedence over COVID-19, which was relegated to the “back seat,” he wrote in an email to a colleague.
