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Schumer calls on VA to explain use of unproven drug on vets

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s top Democrat is calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain why it allowed the use of an unproven drug on veterans for the coronavirus.

Sen. Charles Schumer says veterans may have been put at unnecessary risk.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he says the VA should provide Congress more information about a recent bulk order for $208,000 worth of a malaria drug that President Donald Trump has heavily promoted, without scientific evidence, as a treatment for COVID-19.

In a statement, the VA called it “preposterous” for anyone to suggest it would make treatment decisions based on anything other than patients' "best medical interests.”