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Idiots on Facebook and Twitter are busy posting a new conspiracy theory.

This one claims Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has known since 2005 that hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat conditions like lupus and arthritis, is effective against coronaviruses like the one that causes COVID-19.

Some fact-checking reveals the story originated from the website, One News Now, operated by the American Family Association, a Christian fundamentalist nonprofit founded by Mississippi pastor Donald Wildmon. The Southern Poverty Law Center has classified the political organization as an ultra-conservative hate group.

 

There are several things wrong with the One News Now story.

First: The article relies on a 2005 study about the effect of chloroquine on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, more commonly called SARS. Chloroquine is chemically similar to hydroxychloroquine, but it is a different drug and is primarily used to treat malaria. Both drugs pose risks for people with heart problems.

The One News Now story claims the journal that published the study is “the official publication of Dr. Fauci’s National Institutes of Health.” That’s inaccurate.

While the 2005 study has been indexed by the NIH’s National Library of Medicine, it was published in the peer-reviewed Virology Journal. The journal is produced by BioMed Central, a United Kingdom-based for-profit publisher. The study’s authors worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, and the study was funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Second: The study does not suggest that hydroxychloroquine could be effective at treating or preventing COVID-19, as One News Now claims.

“HCQ functions as both a cure and a vaccine,” the website wrote. “In other words, it’s a wonder drug for coronavirus.”

This is inaccurate — there is no cure or vaccine for SARS or the novel coronavirus. While some studies have found that hydroxychloroquine could mitigate some of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, other research has found no such effect. With more than 50 studies in the works, as well as an NIH clinical trial, it’s too soon to say whether the drug is a viable treatment for the coronavirus.

The 2005 study found that chloroquine — not hydroxychloroquine — was “effective in inhibiting the infection and spread of SARS CoV,” the official name for SARS. The research was conducted in “cell culture conditions,” meaning the drug was not administered to actual SARS patients. The authors wrote that more research was needed on how the drug interacts with SARS in animal test subjects.

Finally: Fauci could not have known in 2005 that hydroxychloroquine was a potential treatment for COVID-19. Available evidence shows that the novel coronavirus first emerged in Hubei Province, China, in November of 2019.

While the novel coronavirus is similar to SARS in some respects — both are human coronaviruses that likely originated in bats, cause respiratory illness and spread through coughs and sneezes — they are different diseases. COVID-19 has infected more than 3.5 million people worldwide compared to the 8,000 who were sickened during the 2003 SARS outbreak. While SARS cases are generally more severe, scientists believe that COVID-19 is more transmissible.

The novel coronavirus and SARS have a genetic similarity and use the same “host cell receptor,” meaning they infect people in similar ways.

But that doesn’t mean the findings of the 2005 study apply to COVID-19.