An infectious disease specialist treating coronavirus patients said antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are an "absolute game-changer" in treating the illness.

Dr. Stephen Smith joined Fox News's Laura Ingraham on her Wednesday night show and said that when a patient goes into respiratory failure from COVID-19, the person is intubated (meaning a tube is put down the trachea) and then placed on a ventilator.

"No person who has received five days or more of the [drug] combination has been intubated," he said. "The chance of that occurring by chance … are .000-something — it's ridiculously low, no matter how you look at it."

"It's an absolute game-changer. I think this data goes to really support the French data," he said. "Laura, I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic."

The Food and Drug Administration issued a limited emergency use authorization of antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate Sunday to combat the coronavirus. President Trump said of the move during a recent news briefing, "Let's see how it works. It may. It may not."