Is it questionable and suspicious for doctors to administer a medication that has not been proved effective for the use in question? Nope. It’s perfectly normal. I explain “off-label prescribing” in a new opinion piece at the Washington Examiner, the news hook being the recent flap about chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine as possible treatments for COVID-19. A related Twitter thread is here as well as here, and here’s our earlier coverage of off-label prescribing.
Also related, this recent line from Scott Alexander is so apt: “Just like the legal term for ‘not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt’ is ‘not guilty’, the medical communication term for ‘not proven effective beyond a reasonable doubt’ is ‘not effective'”.
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According to The Epoch Times, Nevada has banned such off-label use of anti-malarials Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine.
And Texas, Ohio, Idaho, and Utah state pharmacy boards are working on or have issued similar restrictions.
Source:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/nevada-bans-hydroxychloroquine-for-covid-19-as-feds-confirm-off-label-use-allowed-nationwide_3285007.html
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