Spoke to a top infectious disease expert here in nyc today, and he told me that Fauci is right, but critics of Donald Trump on hydroxychloroquine are also wrong

Fauci is right in that clinical data is needed to say “it works” or “it’s a cure”

But Trump is also entirely right-

Trump has been very clear that he is only hopeful at this point, and that he is cautiously optimistic about what anecdotal stories have come back from frontline doctors treating covid

The doc told me there is no contradiction in these positions, and it’s unhelpful to pretend so

As explained to me, part of the problem here is that we don’t have the time to wait for clinical trial data on hydroxychloroquine and azythromycin- medical ethics dictate that you do all you can for patients, and so setting up a control group of sick patients is tough to do

But

The FDA has approved this precisely because it has shown some efficacy, and this is like battlefield medicine. You do whatever will save the most lives the fastest. Hydroxychloroquine is safe, and it’s among the best options out there no

in extremis, you take your best shot

Doc spoke to me without attribution because he works for a major NYC hospital treating hundreds of covid patients and there is a lot of sensitivity right now about press

One more thing: timing of hydroxychloroquine intervention seems to the be a VERY important component of efficacy, according to many frontline docs he works with. And FDA will not allow outpatient prescriptions, only in hospital, for covid 19

What this means is that some people with access and means are going to want access to hydroxychloroquine/zpac (and maybe zinc) right away, not after going to hospital

Preemptive stockpiling is going to become an issue, how big he couldn’t say but happening quietly already