[Goose]

Any prior "admin FDA" would never have approved it for emergency use based on the limited and poor data available at that point.

No prior FDA ever has been involved in anything like this epidemic. You may recall that the FDA was slammed for its slow approvals of some testing. The FDA is usually pretty immune to political pressure in the "normal" sense. They don't turn over the staff every time we get a new president, and they do not react well to attempts by the administration to influence their process or their speed. Many have lamented that they consider themselves a law unto themselves with no responsibility to anyone else. In reality, they are not immune to what is going on around them. They have both approved and not approved things recently that surprised lots of people. Since "off label" use of hydroxychloroquine was possible anyway, the approval really didn't change much. Reimbursement would be problematic in both cases, so no change there either.

[Goose]

Any prior "admin FDA" would never have approved it for emergency use based on the limited and poor data available at that point.

No prior FDA ever has been involved in anything like this epidemic. You may recall that the FDA was slammed for its slow approvals of some testing. The FDA is usually pretty immune to political pressure in the "normal" sense. They don't turn over the staff every time we get a new president, and they do not react well to attempts by the administration to influence their process or their speed. Many have lamented that they consider themselves a law unto themselves with no responsibility to anyone else. In reality, they are not immune to what is going on around them. They have both approved and not approved things recently that surprised lots of people. Since "off label" use of hydroxychloroquine was possible anyway, the approval really didn't change much. Reimbursement would be problematic in both cases, so no change there either.