[Sciutto:] Of course, we are still in the midst of a pandemic, but there is potentially promising news in the fight against coronavirus. Eli Lilly, the drug company, has begun the first human trial of an antibody treatment.
[Harlow:] Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent, is with us. So how good is this potentially good news?
[Elizabeth Cohen, Cnn Senior Medical Correspondent:] So it's not just Eli Lilly. There are now several companies that are moving towards doing human clinical trials. Eli Lilly appears to be the first. Monoclonal antibodies appear to be a potentially promising treatment. What they do is they take antibodies from people who've recovered from COVID. And instead of just giving those antibodies, you know, in the right to other people in the form of convalescent plasma which we've all heard about they cull the very best of them and use the strongest ones, and turn it into a drug. And so it's really hoped that this is going to work because we're not going to have excuse me a vaccine immediately, so it's hoped that this might be in addition to a vaccine, or a bridge to a vaccine. But there are several companies doing monoclonal antibody research, it's worked well for other diseases like cancer.
[Sciutto:] OK. Hydroxychloroquine, there have been so many confusing messages about this from the president, politicians, et cetera. The science has been very clear on it as a treatment. No sign of benefit, even some sign of negative consequences. But the commissioner of the FDA, sending mixed messages. Tell us what he's doing at this point, and what Americans at home should take from all this.
[Cohen:] OK. So first of all, I'm going to try to give a clear message here, since you're right, there are so many voices.
[Sciutto:] Yes.
[Cohen:] The clear message is that if you are already sick with COVID- 19 and in the hospital, it does not appear that this works and it might hurt. And that is why the FDA, the NIH, other groups have said, you know what, let's not use this on hospitalized patients unless they're part of a study and we're trying to answer questions and monitor them closely. Does hydroxychloroquine prevent people from getting sick in the first place? That's an open question and several people are studying this. What the FDA commissioner talked about recently was, he said, We don't regulate the practice of medicine. Because people were saying to him, wait a minute, doctors are still prescribing this in ways that they've been told not to. The answer is that doctors can pretty much do whatever they want with a drug that is already on the market. If a drug is on the market for toe fungus, they can use it for cancer if they want to. I'm being silly, but that is literally true. Doctors are allowed to use off- label prescribing. You've had it done to you, I've had it done to me, we've all had it done, it's perfectly legal.
[Harlow:] But make sure it's the best call, right? Thank you for the
[Sciutto:] Yes.
[Harlow:] clarifying note, Elizabeth.
[Cohen:] That's right.
[Harlow:] Thanks so much. We will be right back with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.