I thought Playpen was the place to be, is it getting too little action there?
There is no good evidence the hydroxychloroquine is helpful. In medicine there is a clear principle, first do no harm. If there is no proven benefit, you don't give drug, outside of clinical trials and compassionate use. The only time you could try is for very high mortality and no treatment, if there is some sound reasoning why it could work. Currently, in ICUs, where theoretically the benefit could outweigh the risk given the much higher mortality, it's not being recommended.
For outpatients it makes even less sense:
- first, not everybody will get it
- second, a majority will get better without treatment so the drug should have a very good safety profile, not to mention very good clinical effect
That Trump and his physician decided to go for it it's not standard of care right now.