Posted by Michael Wonder on 18 Apr 2020
Finding effective treatments for COVID-19: scientific integrity and public confidence in a time of crisis
16 April 2020 - Everyone wants new treatments and vaccines to address the devastation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
But, currently, under intense pressure and based on hope and limited data from poorly conducted clinical trials and observational data, many clinicians are embarking on ill-advised and uncontrolled human experimentation with unproven treatments.
This approach cannot provide answers about what treatments are effective, and it poses undue risk to patients. In this light, decisions to seek and invoke Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) authorities from the US FDA, such as the recent EUA for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which will further increase use of these drugs for treating individuals with COVID-19, are noteworthy and deserve careful attention.
