Trump?s ?Miracle Cure? for Covid Is a Logistical Nightmare

This is a big deal, since the prior therapies authorized for emergency use by the FDA—hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, and convalescent plasma—have all been used for people who are already in the hospital.But who, exactly, will get the treatments? Age would be easy enough to assess, but how would weight be adjudicated, let alone confirmed, by insurers or whichever gatekeeper decides who does or doesn’t get the only treatment available to non-hospitalized patients with Covid?Even among people who are technically eligible for the therapies, access will be unequal, unfair, and confusing. These problems will be magnified for monoclonal antibodies, given the sheer number of patients who will be eligible and the disparate locations outside of hospitals in which they will be treated. If the new therapies are meant for people who are newly diagnosed with the disease, then the ability of patients to get their Covid test results quickly will determine whether and when they get access. Unless these treatments are given in military hospitals or government-owned facilities, someone has to pay.The authorization of antibody therapies for emergency use will be a moment of triumph for science, but it also has the potential to add to the confusion, inequities, and polarization that defines the Covid pandemic.