Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, hundreds of studies have examined the efficacy of dozens of drugs and other compounds in treating the disease. While the research is still ongoing, a sizable number of treatments have shown promise. A growing number of them have been authorized by the U.S. government, though virtually all of those approved sport hefty price tags.   Meanwhile, doctors and public health authorities around the world have also found a number of much cheaper treatment methods to be effective. The FDA hasn’t greenlit any of those, even the safest and least controversial ones. The FDA says that in the approval process, its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research “particularly focuses on the results of randomized, controlled clinical trials, which we consider to be the gold standard.” Conducting such trials is a long and expensive process, and receiving a full approval usually takes …