My understanding is that physicians have, for decades, consistently used drugs in an off-label manner, but only when there is absolutely nothing else that is approved for treatment.
I don’t know if it has to be “safe” and how that is determined, or if a physician has to apply to use it in a different way. I admit to being ignorant about that.
What I think is different here is that the government took the off-label use of HCQ and Ivermectin (or at least HCQ) OFF the table by saying it was ONLY approved for use on an inpatient basis under the care of a physician in a controlled study.
That went against decades of physician independence and leeway by removing that capability from them. That is what I have heard. But I know you can still get a physician to prescribe it. So I don’t understand the dynamic, unless I have it wrong.
I have suspected that if you work as a prescribing provider at a large institution, you have to adhere to the treatment algorithms approved by your organization. Deviation from those algorithms can be professionally and legally dangerous to providers, so I have suspected their hands may be tied in this respect.
However, while that provides a consistency in care (following the organizationally approved treatment algorithms) it has resulted in poorer care overall, and physicians, like most people, are herd animals. Nobody likes to be poking out of the crowd in a bad way, which is how deviation from those algorithms might be viewed, unless you are powerful with an independent streak.
But these are all things I have picked up anecdotally.
I asked a doc here if HCQ could be prescribed off label for covid and he said sure, he’d done it some himself. So apparently there’s no problem legally which was my question. But in his opinion it just didn’t work and there are now better options. It’s not a dangerous med or anything. A lack of effectiveness appears to be why they aren’t interested in using it.