Many Americans are wondering why President Donald Trump has been relentlessly and dangerously promoting two old malaria drugs to fight the deadly coronavirus, but now it seems a legitimate tie may have been found.
The investigative news site Sludge reports a top Trump backer’s advocacy group, fueled with funds from Big Pharma, “has been pushing Trump to approve the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19.”
Home Depot founder and billionaire right wing activist Bernie Marcus founded the non-profit group Job Creators Network, which works for right wing causes including lower taxes, less regulations, and so-called “free-market solutions.”
Marcus donated millions to groups which worked to get Trump elected. He has said he will again donate millions to help get Trump re-elected.
Sludge reports the pharmaceutical industry has funded Marcus’ Job Creators Network, which “has been pushing” Trump “to make the drug available.”
“On March 26, Job Creators Network, a conservative dark money nonprofit, launched a petition, a series of Facebook ads, and a blast text message campaign calling on Trump to ‘cut the red tape’ and immediately make hydroxychloroquine available to treat patients,” Sludge reports.
The petition is a collaboration with the Koch Brothers funded group Physicians for Reform.
“There is clear and ever-mounting evidence that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine can significantly help patients who contract coronavirus,” the petition states, despite the lack of rigorous clinical testing.
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Job Creators Network has been funded by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a drug industry trade that counts among its members leading hydroxychloroquine makers Novartis, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Bayer. According to tax documents, PhRMA donated $500,000 to Job Creators Network in 2017.
Those three companies could make millions if not billions if hydroxychloroquine were found to be a cure for COVID-19.
Here’s Marcus defending Trump in 2016 after his vile remarks were exposed in the now-infamous, lewd, “Entertainment Tonight” video:
Read the entire hydroxychloroquine story here.