On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie reassured that the use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine is safe.

In an appearance on Fox & Friends First, Wilkie was questioned about media reports claiming that the antimalarial drug can kill patients instead of giving a cure. Wilkie dismissed the claims as “nonsense.”

“And I’ll echo what the President said the other day. I think it’s more aimed at President Trump than it is against science because as we speak, Dr. Fauci and his institute are conducting very detailed clinical trials,” Wilkie explained. He also highlighted the seemingly forgotten fact that hydroxychloroquine is the 128th most-used drug in the United States. He also informed everyone that the drug has worked in many settings across the country. “Our goal at VA is to do everything we can to preserve and prolong life,” he said.

Wilkie also took a jab at the media for presenting “studies” that show that the drug could be dangerous. He claimed that the study the establishment media was pushing for was not clinically or peer-reviewed. “It was gone over by three ophthalmologists,” he said. “Now, I like ophthalmology, but I’m not going to turn to an ophthalmologist to review studies on infectious diseases,” Wilkie said. He also added that the media’s researchers took and used VA numbers without even looking at the underlying medical conditions, misrepresenting what was really going on at VA.

He also assured the public that before the President started taking hydroxychloroquine, it had undergone serious reviews by health experts. “We’re not going to take risks with the life of the president of the United States,” Wilkie said.

Wilkie further provided reassurance that the antimalarial drug was safe, saying that the VA has started using it in the military since 1955. He added that he has personally taken it, together with everyone who has served in the military since the Eisenhower administration. “We know its side effects, we know what it does, and if we can offer hope to people, we’re going to continue to do that.”