Piers Morgan reveals his father is taking drug hydroxychloroquine for rheumatoid arthritis after Donald Trump's controversial revelation that he's been using it to fend off COVID-19

Piers Morgan's father Glynne Pughe-Morgan is taking hydroxychloroquine for rheumatoid arthritis - after Donald Trump backed using the...

Piers Morgan's father Glynne Pughe-Morgan is taking hydroxychloroquine for rheumatoid arthritis - after Donald Trump backed using the controversial drug to fend off COVID-19.

The US President admitted last week that he has been taking the drug - ordinarily used for malaria - amid the recent pandemic, but Piers, 55, said his dad has been using it for six years.

This comes after the Good Morning Britain anchor openly slammed Trump for championing the drug's use against coronavirus, tweeting 'WTF?????' when the President made the revelation and writing in his Daily Mail column on Tuesday that Trump was being 'reckless', 'shameful' and 'negligent'.

Piers said, however, that those taking the drug for targeting lupus, malaria and rheumatoid arthritis, should not be dissuaded. 

'I was speaking to my parents last night and my dad suddenly pipes up because he's been on hydroxychloroquine,' Piers told Susanna Reid and Dr Hilary Jones. 

'Dad had a few outbursts of rheumatoid arthritis and he got put on this hydroxychloroquine for that, and he's been really good with it.

'Six years he's been on it, and he's not had an attack of the arthritis ever since. It's interesting, isn't it. 

'We don't want to tell people who should be on it that because Donald Trump is taking it irrationally and wrongly for COVID-19, where it appears to have no effect.

'We don't want people who have lupus or malaria or in my father's case rheumatoid arthritis... because it's a very effective drug when used properly for things it's supposed to be treating.'

Trump held a socially distanced cabinet meeting on Tuesday where he insisted his use of hydroxychloroquine is safe.

The president was backed by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie during the meeting; but not one member of the cabinet said they were taking the controversial drug when probed.

Trump said: 'Many of them would take it if they thought it was necessary.'

He went on to add that veterans who passed away from the coronavirus while taking hydroxy were sick people who were 'ready to die.'

He blasted a study that used data from the veterans' administration and showed a higher rate of death among those who received the drug. 

WHAT IS RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS? THE AGONISING LONG-TERM ILLNESS THAT IS INCURABLE

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects around 400,000 people in the UK

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects around 400,000 people in the UK and nearly 1.3 million adults in the US.

Women are up to three times more likely to develop the condition than men. Those with family history of rheumatoid arthritis are also more vulnerable.

It is a long-term illness in which the immune system causes the body to attack itself, causing painful, swollen and stiff joints.  

RA, the second most common form of arthritis that often begins between the ages of 40 and 50, tends to strike the hands, wrists and knees.

Scientists are currently unsure as to the exact cause of RA, but smoking, eating lots of red meat and coffee drinkers are at higher risk. 

A cure has yet to be found, but treatments are available and proven to help slow down the progressive condition.

Patients can manage their agonising symptoms with over-the-counter drugs that combat the inflammation, such as aspirin.

But some will need replacement joints to relieve them of their pain. Exercise is recommended as it can help to look after joints.   

'There was a false study done, where they gave it to very sick people, extremely sick people, people that were ready to die,' Trump said. 

'It's got a bad reputation only because I'm promoting and so I'm obviously a very bad promoter.

'If anybody else were promoting it, they'd say this is the greatest thing ever.'

The president also denied the Food and Drug Administration put out a warning about hydroxychloroquine, which it did on April 30. The FDA warned the drug caused heart problems and said it should only be used to treat the coronavirus on patients already in the hospital.

'No that's not what I was told,' Trump said when asked about the warning. 

Hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus: What does the evidence say?

Hydroxychloroquine - branded as Plaquenil - is a cheap drug that has been used as a prophylaxis against malaria for decades.

But no evidence currently exists to show the drug can prevent patients being struck down with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Scientists also warn there is no proof hydroxychloroquine, which was touted as a wonder drug by Donald Trump and can be given to arthritis and lupus patients, can even treat COVID-19.

Hope was sparked early on in the crisis when an early French study suggested the drug could have both antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects.

It caused a flurry of research across the world, including in Britain, an endorsement from Trump and emergency authorization from US regulators.

But other research has dealt a blow to the drug - one Chinese trial last month found it did not speed up the recovery of COVID-19 patients.

And New York researchers last week said patients got no benefits whether they took just the drug or paired it with the antibiotic azithromycin.

Leading doctors have warned the drug can cause severe side effects, and may even throw off the process that makes the heart beat in time.

One trial in Brazil was stopped early because so many of the enrolled coronavirus patients given the drug developed these arrhythmias.

SO, WHAT HAVE THE STUDIES SHOWN?

INFECTED PATIENTS 'GET NO BENEFIT FROM TAKING HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE'

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health looked at data from 1,438 COVID-19 patients across 25 hospitals in New York.

The study, published in JAMA last month, was observational and looked at the outcomes of patients given different drug combinations.

About 25 per cent of patients who received hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin - another promising coronavirus drug - died.

In comparison, the rate was 20 per cent for those only given hydroxychloroquine alone and was 10 per cent for those on azithromycin.

90% OF CRITICAL PATIENTS GIVEN THE DRUG DEVELOP ARRHYTHMIAS

Scientists in the US and France last month found 90 per cent of critically-ill COVID-19 patients given hydroxychloroquine developed heart arrhythmias.

Massachusetts General Hospital researchers monitored 90 patients in intensive care units, while University of Lyon academics analysed 40 patients.

Both uncovered similar results in JAMA Cardiology, after looking at the QT intervals - the time between the heart's ventricular muscles contracting and then relaxing.

When this interval becomes too long, the patient has developed a dangerous form of heart arrhythmia, called atrial fibrillation.

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE MAY IMPAIR ABILITY OF IMMUNE SYSTEMS

Hydroxychlorouquine may impair the ability of patients' immune systems to fight off the infection, a review suggested at the start of April.

Harvard scientists analyzed 10 studies as well as anecdotal reports from doctors that suggested the drug could help coronavirus patient.

The review found many of the clinical trials were poorly conducted and anecdotal reports carried little weight.

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE DOES NOT SPEED UP RECOVERY

The antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine did not speed up coronavirus patients' recovery in a trial in China, scientists revealed in April.

In a disappointing blow for the promising drug, doctors said it did not work as a cure.

Patients who were taking it suffered fewer symptoms than others who were treated alongside them without the medication but their recovery time was the same.

They had tested hydroxychloroquine on 75 COVID-19 patients in hospitals and compared their illnesses to 75 patients who didn't receive the drug.

BRAZIL TRIAL STOPPED EARLY BECAUSE OF HEART PROBLEMS

A clinical trial in Brazil had to be stopped early, it was revealed last month, because patients developed heart problems.

The Brazilian study, taking place in the Amazonian city of Manaus, had planned to enroll 440 severely ill COVID-19 patients to test two doses of chloroquine.

But researchers reported their results and called a halt to the experiment after only 81 people had received the high-dose treatment which gave them 1,200mg per day.

One in four of the patients had developed heart rhythm problems and early data suggested death rates were higher among those patients.

MALARIA DRUG DOES IMPROVE SURVIVAL ODDS, PHYSICIANS CLAIM

Hydroxychloroquine has improved the survival and recovery odds for about 90 per cent of patients treated, a physicians group claimed.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) presented data on 2,333 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine.

Results showed 91.6 per cent of those who got the controversial drug fared better after treatment, it was reported at the end of April.

COMBINING DRUG WITH DIET SUPPLEMENT COULD WORK BETTER

Combining hydroxychloroquine with the dietary supplement zinc could create a more effective treatment for coronavirus patients, a study suggested last week.

Researchers found taking the drugs together, along with the antibiotic azithromycin, increased patient's chances of being discharged and decreased their risk of dying.

It did not, however, change the average time patients spent in hospital, how long they spent on a ventilator or the total amount of oxygen required.

The team, from New York University Grossman School of Medicine, says the findings are encouraging but that more studies are needed.

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE COULD HELP TREAT PATIENTS, STUDY SAYS

French researchers last month found hydroxychloroquine could treat coronavirus patients, sparking hope of a cure.

Thirty patients were treated with hydroxychloroquine for 10 days, combined with azithromycin, an antibiotic.

Although very small, the study 'showed a significant reduction of the viral carriage' after the six days.

And results showed patients had a 'much lower average carrying duration' compared to patients who received other treatments.

Several weeks later, the study's publisher said the paper 'did not meet its standards' because it excluded data on patients who did not respond well to the treatment.

Trump said he didn't feel any impact from taking a daily dose of hydroxychloroquine.  'I've had no impact from it. I feel the same. I haven't changed I don't think too much,' he noted during his Cabinet meeting. 

He got two of Cabinet secretaries to defend his use of hydroxychloroquine: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Veterans Secretary Robert Wilkie.  

Azar said any medical drug can be used for 'off-label' purposes or something it was not originally intended for but may have an effect on. 

'The doctor in consultation with the patient may use it for what we call off-label purposes, which are indications that are not yet proven and not yet in the label,' he noted.

An April study of 368 male patients at Veterans Affairs hospitals nationwide found hydroxychloroquine was linked to higher rates of death for those hospitalized with the coronavirus. The data was gathered from the veterans hospital by outside academics who then analyzed it and presented their findings. 

More than 27 per cent of patients who received the drug died and 22 per cent of patients who were treated with a combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin – known as z-pack - also died.

The death rate for those who did not receive the drugs was 11.4 per cent. 

President Trump claimed many of those working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are taking hydroxychloroquine.

'A lot of our front line workers take it because it possibly and  - I think it does but you know these people are going to have to make up their own mind. Plus, it doesn't hurt people. It's been out of the market for 60 or 65 years for malaria, lupus and other things,' he said during brief remarks after his lunch with senators on Tuesday.

'I think it gives you an additional level of safety, but you can ask many doctors are in favor of it. Many front line workers won't go there, unless they have the hydroxy. And so again this is an individual decision to make, but it's had a great reputation. And if it was somebody else other than me, people would say gee isn't that smart,' he added.

The president has come under heavy criticism from doctors, Democrats, media commentators and foreign countries after his shocking announcement on Monday he is taking a daily dose of hydroxychloroquine even as he test negative for the coronavirus.