Past FDA Heads Warn Against Using Malaria Drug for Coronavirus

Former FDA leaders cautioned against shortchanging science in the rush to make available unproven Covid-19 treatments like the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which President Donald Trump touts.

The comments Monday from Margaret Hamburg and Mark McClellan—both former commissioners of the Food and Drug Administration—join a growing body of voices in the scientific community warning about providing “false hope” to patients looking for a treatment.

“We totally understand how if you’ve got Covid-19 and serious complications and nothing that works, you want access to something,” McClellan said during a briefing organized by the Commonwealth Fund. “It’s also important to keep in mind ...