Covid-19 roundup: Trump push­es his new fa­vorite, untest­ed drug; CRISPR out­lines crip­pling im­pact of Covid-19

Pres­i­dent Trump has a new fa­vorite Covid-19 drug.

Af­ter a con­ver­sa­tion with Japan­ese Prime Min­is­ter Shin­zo Abe, Politi­co re­ports, the pres­i­dent is pres­sur­ing the FDA to is­sue emer­gency use au­tho­riza­tion for favipi­ravir, a flu drug that showed glimpses of suc­cess in Chi­na but re­mains un­proven and car­ries a list of wor­ry­ing side ef­fects. The push comes af­ter a week-plus in which the White House tout­ed a po­ten­tial­ly ef­fec­tive but un­proven malar­ia med­ica­tion de­spite the con­cerns of sci­en­tif­ic ad­vi­sors such as NI­AID di­rec­tor An­tho­ny Fau­ci. And Trump al­ly Rudy Giu­liani has been talk­ing up un­proven cell ther­a­py ef­forts on Twit­ter.

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