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Comment by waynecochran | Hacker News Reader

> If this drug isn’t useful, then sending hundreds of millions of people out to swallow all of it that they can find will be a massive waste of time and money, and will actively harm people besides.

I don't think folks are reading the whole article.

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I'm not suggesting immediately starting to dose millions of people with it. I'm suggesting massively ramping up production so that if it turns out to be useful, we can at that point immediately start dosing millions of people with it.

I think it likely that the cost of massively increasing hydroxychloroquine production would be a drop in the bucket compared to the total resources being spent on tackling the crisis. So even if the drug turns out to not be effective, the attempt to mass-produce it would still have been a rational gamble.

Note that if hydroxychloroquine is not effective, your production facilities will be tied up if you do find something else that is effective.

But won't they be tied up one way or another producing something else, unless by chance they happen to currently be producing something that turns out to be important in the fight against the pandemic?

Stop making shit up, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Not really, you just switch in the same agile manner you did to produce quinine...

I have a feeling things are about to come up roses for President Trump yet again! :-)

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