PARIS — The French government has stopped the use of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19 patients after a study suggested it doesn’t work and poses health risks.
France must have looked at what they had to lose.
Bistro Night!!! My favorite country does it again. Steak au Po, Duchess potatoes and pan steamed asparagus. Probably something nice and red from Provence to drink.
strong move …an emphatic “guidance”
not sure about how “enforceable” it is in France.
Would be difficult to do here - since the drug is still on the market - it is "legally " available and “off lable use” is not illegal.
Nonetheless … this may finally put a damper on Dr. Donnie’s medical advice sessions.
A nation of cheese eating surrender monkeys. -John Miller
“The council’s recommendation is “one opinion like any other, I don’t care much,””
These are not the words of a physician, let alone a researcher, who should care about the search for truth. Since he sounds like a duck, must indeed be a quack.
If a drug is specifically listed as a “do not use” for a purpose you can’t go off label and script it out. Contraindicated drugs are not at the desecration of the practitioner. Use it and lose it we say. You go off label and have an untoward event you’re fucked.
No problem, we’ll just call it Freedom Hydroxychloroquin.
oh - yes - yes totally agree - malpractice exposure is huge … and there could be fraud issues if one tried to get it paid for - in a non-indicated manner. Institution can also make rules - which appears to be what the French healthcare system did - it has become a total NO-NO in any French hospital
Here in the US - Hydroxychoroquine is not yet “Contraindicated” for COVID-19 … probably should be - just because of Trump’s stupidity … but it would seem that there are several bureaucratic wheels that would need to turn before the FDA issues a letter formally designating “Contraindicated” …and as much as it would seem good to close the door on this - it would be best if this is done expeditiously but with proper deliberation & science.
Uh oh…are we headed back to " freedom fries"…the Don needs to weigh in in this unwholesome nod to science…
I, too, immediately thought of Freedom Fries. 
An eccentric epidemiologist from France is the reason hydroxychloroquine became so popular and misconstrued to help treat Covid 19 in the first place. His name is Didier Raoult and he hates doing things that authenticate results like doing double blind studies. He pushed hydroxychloroquine when he didn’t bother to properly finish his study to observe all of the results, had too small of a sample size, and he didn’t make it double blind. Now there are fringe lunatics that believe the quack and they’re trying to push hydroxychloroquine on everyone.
Old drugs are often used for purposes that used to be considered side effects. Rump’s dose was subtherapeutic.