Hands off My Plaquenil?

My young friend Jason, research superstar and damn fine doctor to boot (see “shameless plugs” 2/22/20), is married to Sara, a science writer.  Sara has spent the last little while researching how the patients Jason and I look after see the new interest in one of their mainstay drugs – Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) – as a possible treatment for COVID-19.  Several of my recent posts have devoted space to that, but Sara examines the point of view of those who feel threatened by this interest.   I take the point of view that ramped up production should meet the needs of both rheumatology and coronavirus patients.  Until now, the market for hydroxychloroquine was pretty stagnant and manufacturers had no reason to produce more.

Her article appears in Undark, an interesting non-profit, editorially independent digital magazine exploring the intersection of science and society, based in Cambridge Mass, where there’s a lot of that about (M.I.T., Harvard and all that).  Here it is: https://undark.org/2020/03/22/hydroxychloroquine-lupus-covid19-coronavirus/