Professor Amber Buhler on Chloroquine: 'We Really Don't Know If It's Effective'

Amber Buhler, a Pacific University pharmacy professor, was interviewed by KOIN, Portland's CBS affiliate, on the subject of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — two anti-malarial drugs that President Trump has touted as a treatment for the novel coronavirus.

In the podcast, Buhler explains that the drugs have not been approved for such use by any agency, haven't been thoroughly tested, and may, in fact, cause harm.

If you take the drugs on your own as a measure to avoid or treat the coronavirus, she said, "you've got a lot to lose."

"It's definitely worth studying" whether the drugs can be useful in the fight against the novel coronavirus, she said, noting that the drugs help reduce inflammation, such as may develop in the lungs of COVID-19 patients. But, she noted, the drugs also carry a level of toxicity that can cause blindness, cardiac arrest or otherwise damage the health of patients.

"We don't have any evidence that it's going to help," she said.