Imagine that a new pandemic hits and, sadly, you test positive. Luckily, we’re better prepared this time and a widely used, safe, convenient pill priced at only $1 is available and can reduce your risk of death by 56%. Would you take it?

Actually, such a drug was available during this pandemic. It has been on the market for decades.

This is from Charles L. Hooper and David R. Henderson, “In Pandemics, Old Drugs May Save Us,” Goodman Institute, Brief Analysis No. 145, March 18, 2022.

Another excerpt:

While newer drugs are often better than older drugs, older drugs have something that newer drugs don’t: they are cheap and widely available today. When a pandemic starts, they are all we have.

We estimate that using these drugs and vitamins could have saved hundreds of thousands of U.S. lives.

Finally:

Pandemics, by nature, move quickly. Drug and vaccine development, especially when highly regulated, are slow. The problem moves faster than the solution. however, there’s one good solution that’s hidden in plain sight: older drugs. The first place to look for useful therapies during a pandemic is older, generic drugs. These drugs offer Americans the prospect of reduced morbidity and mortality while simultaneously being very cheap. We just need the FDA to cease being a roadblock.

What about the statistical significance argument, which has been used to discredit, in particular, ivermectin? We address that in a forthcoming article in Regulation.

The table at the top is from our article.

Read the whole thing.