Governor Sisolek decided to ban the drug combination of chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin shows the weakness of our response to the pandemic, government stopping innovation. Contrast to Andrew Cuomo who is starting trials in New York on the combination or a recent editorial from two physicians in Kansas who are finding success in the drug. As I mention, the key element in this combination is finding the right dosages as we are still learning about how to use this combination but over the years, physicians and investigators have often found new usages for older drugs on the market. 21 to 36% of drugs are used for off-label indications so Sisolek is getting in the way of progress.
If we have found out anything, our bureaucracy has failed. As James Copeland noted in a recent article, “the CDC’s in-house testing design was flawed, thus compromising early testing results. Mistakes happen, but the impact of the test-design flaw was much greater than it should have been—owing to the U.S. bureaucracy’s tightly controlled process. Even had the CDC test worked perfectly, not nearly enough tests would have been available for wide-scale testing on the South Korean model.” CDC and FDA regulations are haven proven to be a hinderance to the approval of drugs indications and testing. This has cost lives and led to increase infections.
When this is over, we will need to reorganize our bureaucracy and our politicians will need there is a limit to government actions for crisis.
The Donelson Files 