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How about a crisis only approval. During which time you don’t give it to babies, pregnant women, etc. It would still be enormously valuable for first responder
by mrfusion 7y ago
How about a crisis only approval. During which time you don’t give it to babies, pregnant women, etc.
It would still be enormously valuable for first responders and elderly. You make sure they have all the information about the unknown risks and let them be consenting adults.
A terrible idea for normal times but maybe ok weighed against the cost of doing nothing in a crisis.
- dmurray 7y agoOne problem with this idea is that the coronavirus just isn't that severe. If the mystery treatment has a 5% rate of severe complications, then the cure would be worse than the disease. Even 1% might be too much: consider that not everybody will contract the coronavirus, and the people most at risk from it (elderly or with comorbidities) are also likely to be at the highest risk of complications from some novel drug. A 5% risk of serious complications isn't unusually high: thalidomide was around 50% for pregnant women. If the coronavirus death rate was comparable with the Spanish flu - around 10% instead of 1%, and severe in young healthy people - we'd be a lot more justified in rushing through untested treatments.