The drive to give hydroxychloroquine to everyone despite scant evidence is gonna kill a lot of people

I hope I’m wrong! I sincerely hope hydroxychloroquine is a miracle drug, because we need one. But the doctors and researchers I trust are saying the evidence for effectiveness is very limited and extraordinarily questionable, and possibly even fraudulent

Here’s what I think will happen. Many people will take hydroxychloroquine. Most will recover, because they would have anyway. They will falsely attribute their recovery to the drug. There will be positive stories

Meanwhile, many people who take hydroxychloroquine will die or be seriously injured. Mostly because they would have anyway, but some because of drug side effects, especially interactions with other medications. They will not be interviewed

Meanwhile, people who need hydroxychloroquine to manage conditions like lupus will suffer because of the sudden shortage

Large-scale studies will show hydroxychloroquine isn’t effective and may be dangerous. People will just call for more and more studies. Eventually, one will show some slight benefit if you squint at the numbers. People will only pay attention to that study

Meanwhile, we will waste so much time and money stockpiling and studying hydroxychloroquine. Time that researchers could spend finding a better drug. That delay will cost lives.

Again, I hope I’m wrong! If hydroxychloroquine turns out to work well, I will cheerfully print out this thread and record a video of myself eating it while saying “wow, the president was right about this one!”