Randomized Controlled Trials of COVID-19 Treatments: Why the World Needs Them

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, much has been said, often disparagingly, about the insistence by physicians and scientists for the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs.) Why, ask the naysayers, can’t we simply start using treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine, which show early promise? An RCT is a means of testing a hypothesis, such …