Panic prescribing has become omnipresent during the COVID-19 pandemic

The President of the United States has repeatedly touted hydroxychlororquine as a likely cure for COVID-19 and urged Americans to try it, stating at one of his media briefings, "What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose? Take it" (1). A few others around the world have chimed in t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of clinical investigation 2020-06, Vol.130 (6), p.2752-2753
Main Authors: Caplan, Arthur L, Upshur, Ross
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Betacoronavirus
Biomedical research
Clinical trials
Clinical Trials as Topic - ethics
Clinical Trials as Topic - methods
Compassionate Use Trials - ethics
Compassionate Use Trials - methods
Coronavirus Infections - drug therapy
Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease
Drug Repositioning - ethics
Drug Repositioning - methods
Drugs, Investigational - therapeutic use
Ebola Vaccines - therapeutic use
Ebola virus
Emergencies
Ethics
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - epidemiology
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - prevention & control
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - therapy
Human subjects
Humans
Medical schools
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral - drug therapy
Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology
Prescription writing
Public health
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Vaccines
Viewpoint
Working groups
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Summary:The President of the United States has repeatedly touted hydroxychlororquine as a likely cure for COVID-19 and urged Americans to try it, stating at one of his media briefings, "What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose? Take it" (1). A few others around the world have chimed in to promote one drug or another, this drug in combination with others, or their own favorite untested nostrums. This has led to drug hoarding, the inability of patients who actually need and benefit from certain drugs to access them, and serious side effects and even deaths from self-medication. As it was unclear at the time whether any benefit would come from these interventions, a mechanism called monitored emergency use of unregistered and investigational interventions (MEURI) was created as a bridge to clinical trials in order to curtail unconstrained use of medications.
ISSN:0021-9738
1558-8238
DOI:10.1172/JCI139562