From an April 28 press conference.
At the time of the purchase, Gov. Kevin Stitt said the drug hydroxychloroquine was shown to be an effective treatment for the coronavirus when in fact his decision was mostly based on currying favor with Donald Trump. They bought it in early April and by the time of this press conference after the size of the order became public it had already been proven as an ineffective and sometimes even dangerous treatment. In the video above, a reporter asks, "So what do we do with it now? Get a refund?"
Source: The Frontier
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office has been tasked with attempting to return a $2 million stockpile of a malaria drug once touted by former President Donald Trump as a way to treat the coronavirus.
In April, Gov. Kevin Stitt, who ordered the hydroxychloroquine purchase, defended it by saying that while it may not be a useful treatment for the coronavirus, the drug had multiple other uses and “that money will not have gone to waste in any respect.”
But nearly a year later the state is trying to offload the drug back to its original supplier, California-based FFF Enterprises, Inc, a private pharmaceutical wholesaler.
...
Stitt was criticized last year for the $2 million purchase, a move viewed by some as a partisan move to curry favor with conservatives who were defending Trump amid criticism of his own support of the drug. But Stitt defended the purchase at the time by likening it to the race early last year to procure personal protective equipment for Oklahomans, believing it was better to have the hydroxychloroquine stockpile and not need it, rather than to later learn the drug was useful but not have it.
The entire hydroxychloroquine hype cycle was utter madnesshttps://t.co/18I0WJxLTo
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 26, 2021
“The state purchased the hydroxychloroquine stockpile in early April, days after Trump began to tout it as a treatment...Trump said at a briefing in March, “What do we have to lose? I feel very good about it.”“https://t.co/DwZR57coZx
— Meghna Chakrabarti (@MeghnaWBUR) January 26, 2021
Other Trump states bought a lot of hydroxychloroquine too, notably Ohio and Utah, but apparently none bought as much as Oklahoma https://t.co/KL5nutPJsX
— David Frum (@davidfrum) January 27, 2021
