A thread: trump and Navarro are touting the drug that treats #malaria as a potential cure for #COVID19. People are saying "what's the problem? just try it and see if it works-docs are using it in New York!". Well: 1) it's dangerous for politicians to be prescribing treatments and

2) is based on my personal experience. Before I went back to school to do a PhD, I worked as a medical sales rep/specialist for a few different companies. One of the products that I sold was new to the market so I worked very closely with surgeons, as I was the product specialist

There were times when I would receive a call from a surgeon asking if the device could be used in an application that there was no research conducted on because that surgeon felt that it could work and they had tried everything else. I was instructed by the company

to explain to the surgeon that if they used it, they were using it off-label and they would be liable if something happened to the patient. So, yes, docs can use it, but they are risking being sued. The proper studies need to be done. There are processes for a reason. End thread.