A statement by Donald Trump, in which he appears to say that a drug has been found that "resurrects the dead", spread rapidly on social media and was interpreted as another absurd claim by the American president.
"We've taken people who were dead," Trump is heard saying during a conversation with reporters in the Oval Office, mentioning a patient who, according to him, had also received the last religious rites, while family members were crying at the bedside.
But, if the full statement is viewed, it becomes clear that the American president was not talking about a drug that "brings the dead back to life," but about cases of patients in extremely serious condition who have responded positively to experimental treatments.
Trump was referring to the "Right to Try Act," a law passed during his first term that gives terminally ill patients the opportunity to try experimental therapies that are not yet fully authorized.
As on many other occasions, the American president used dramatic and hyperbolic language to describe a rare medical improvement, creating the impression that he was talking about "resurrection" in the literal sense of the word.
However, the "Right to Try" law itself remains a subject of debate in the US. Critics have argued that patients previously had access to experimental treatments through special emergency mechanisms, while the legal changes weakened their protection against abuse or unsafe treatments at very delicate moments in life.
