Compassionate use of experimental medicine needs to coexist with scientific rigor to help patients, researchers write in the journal Science
Does a widespread medical emergency justify speedier, and sometimes less rigorous, ways to test treatments and evaluate results? Doctors and patients urgently need to get their hands on drugs for the COVID-19 pandemic.But bioethicists Jonathan Kimmelman of McGill University and Alex John London of Carnegie Mellon University argue in an April 23 Science article that hurried trials and tests can do more harm than good. They highlight hastily published case reports that, they contend, can lead doctors to believe some drugs offer more of a benefit than has been proved.