Finding Effective Treatments for COVID-19

Everyone wants new treatments and vaccines to address the devastation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). But, currently, under intense pressure and based on hope and limited data from poorly conducted clinical trials and observational data, many clinicians are embarking on ill-advised and uncontrolled human experimentation with unproven treatments.1 This approach cannot provide answers about what treatments are effective, and it poses undue risk to patients. In this light, decisions to seek and invoke Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) authorities from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as the recent EUA for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine,2 which will further increase use of these drugs for treating individuals with COVID-19, are noteworthy and deserve careful attention. Not only are there potential negative consequences from uncontrolled use of these drugs based on currently unconvincing data but, equally concerning, the integrity of governmental decision-making is increasingly coming under pressure, risking harm to both patients and to the public confidence needed to respond effectively to this pandemic. In 2014, Ebola virus disease, then believed to be fatal to most infected individuals, was widespread in West Africa. Early doses of “secret serum,” the triple monoclonal antibody combination (ZMapp), were given