Unsurprisingly, @US_FDA caved and approved these drugs for #COVID19, even though there is a shocking paucity of evidence that they work in humans. One reason is simple: Set a precedent for lowering drug approval standards during a pandemic. 3/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/hydroxychloroquine-and-azithromycin-versus-covid-19/ …
-
Show this thread
-
In this hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are perfect as the next shot. They're already
@US_FDA-approved for other indications, meaning that they could easily be prescribed off-label for other indications. That meant just getting docs to off-label prescribe builds pressure. 4/1 reply 4 retweets 14 likesShow this thread -
That's exactly what happened. Trump and
@FoxNews promoted a handful of "miracle cure" stories plus a really dubious study or two by a French "maverick" scientist and Chinese anecdotal evidence, and, voilà! 5/1 reply 3 retweets 14 likesShow this thread -
Many doctors were revealed to be quite credulous and not very devoted to evidence-based medicine. They started prescribing the drugs willy-nilly. Some of them even started hoarding. Trump then rode to the rescue by persuading drug companies to make more available. 6/
1 reply 3 retweets 15 likesShow this thread -
Meanwhile, political pressure was building on
@US_FDA to approve the drugs for#COVID19, which the FDA duly did. It's no surprise that they did, either. FDA leadership had already been stocked with ideologues who also believed drug approval should be faster and less rigorous. 7/1 reply 3 retweets 15 likesShow this thread -
So now, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are FDA-approved for
#COVID19, which means that states will now have a hard time trying to rein in the mad prescribing going on. 8/1 reply 4 retweets 13 likesShow this thread -
It will also mean that completing proper randomized clinical trials to see if they actually work will become near impossible. No patient will want to risk being randomized to the placebo control group. Why would they? The FDA approved the drugs. That must mean the work, right? 9/
2 replies 5 retweets 21 likesShow this thread -
I now fear we will never really know if chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have clinically meaningful activity vs.
#COVID19 because the RCTs will likely never be completed. We'll never know which patients might benefit the most (if they work), what the optimal dose is, etc. 10/2 replies 7 retweets 29 likesShow this thread -
A whole lot of people will be placed at risk for serious cardiac arrhythmia, though. Actually, that's happening now, for no known benefit. 11/
1 reply 3 retweets 15 likesShow this thread -
Trump doesn't care, though. His libertarian anti-regulation, anti-FDA backers don't care. They've notched a "victory" against the deep state, the regulatory state. They've set a precedent. 12/
1 reply 2 retweets 17 likesShow this thread
Next step: Get the FDA to super fast track drugs that aren't currently approved and approve them for #COVID19 with inadequate testing. Anyone who's been paying attention knew that this would be their next move, all in the name of "saving patients." 13/
-
-
We'll pay a price for this in the future, when drugs are approved based on much lower evidence standards and less rigorous safety testing. Don't worry though. The free market will decide. That's what the anti-regulation right always says. 14/14
4 replies 5 retweets 36 likesShow this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.