1/With today's @US_FDA decision to end emergency authorization for #hydroxychloroquine to treat #COVID19, let's revisit the clues that this miracle cure, touted by @POTUS, was politics, not science, from the start politi.co/2YGa59C (thread)
2/Right away, the FDA's emergency use authorization (EUA) allowed for plummeting quality standards. Stockpile chloroquine phosphate from uninspected Rx plants in Pakistan + India? Why not? reut.rs/2UOo5x7
3/The compromise was worth it, supposedly, because the drug was a #gamechanger, as @POTUS proclaimed. As the Trump administration secretly planned to flood NY + NJ w/ millions of doses, gov't scientists rightly resisted: vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/i…
4/That resistance led to the forced transfer of @RickABright, head of @BARDA. He did not go quietly, and became the 1st whistleblower to publicly allege the gov't had muzzled scientists and cost lives: vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/w…
5/.@RickABright testified before Congress, warning of the "darkest winter" in modern history unless the Trump Administration heeded its scientists: vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/r…
6/As clinical trials showing no efficacy, and even harm, mounted, experts asked, why didn't the @US_FDA revoke the EUA? The answer: the FDA's decision to back hydroxychloroquine had been political all along: vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/d…
7/ Today, prescient observers are asking: what political-pharmaceutical gamble is next - an Operation Warp Speed vaccine? Though today's FDA decision is right, this entire #HCQ episode is not a good look for @SteveFDA or the agency he leads: fda.gov/media/138945/d…
