The sophisticated American consumer has grown accustomed to the gold standard for drug and health products—the prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (RCT). Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was supposed to be a churning mill of large RCTs to help the nation understand what conclusively is effective in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Unfortunately, after three years, OWS has delivered failed products (remdesivir, baricitinib, molnupiravir, COVID-19 vaccines) and small inconclusive trials of products that doctors have found effective in practice, including off-target generic antivirals and anticoagulants. OWS did not test simple, affordable, available prevention strategies. Fortunately, such RCTs were done outside of the United States and have brought us important findings….