President Donald Trump’s declaration that he was taking an antimalarial drug of dubious effectiveness to help fend off the coronavirus will be welcomed in India.

Trump’s previous endorsement of hydroxychloroquine catalysed a tremendous shift in the South Asian country, spurring the world’s largest producer of the drug to make much more of it, prescribe it for front-line health workers treating the virus and deploy it as a diplomatic tool, despite mounting evidence against using the drug for Covid-19.

Trump recently said that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a measure of protection against the virus. The US Food and Drug Administration, however, has cautioned against using it outside of hospitals because of the risk of serious heart problems.

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