Open Call to Bioethicists - Urge immediate use of COVID-19 treatment drug
in Israeli Hospitals to save lives and keep country open
Dr. Aaron Lerner 10 August 2021

EXO-CD24 should be used immediately to solve the threat that severely ill
COVID-19 patients overwhelm our hospitals.

The successful experiment in Greece of the drug developed by Prof. Nadir
Arber of Ichilov Hospital has already proven that the drug is both safe and
effective.

https://www.bhol.co.il/news/1257138 for an article about the test
results.

EXO-CD24 is already used for treating other illnesses and ramping up
production is relatively easy.

The only question left is whether the source of the effectiveness is
psychological (that a placebo would be just as effective) or real - a
clearly irrelevant question for dealing with the epidemic.

The ethical question is straightforward:

Which choice is the moral choice?

Option #1: Have the hospitals administer a proven safe and effective
treatment to COVID-19 patients so that almost all of them can be discharged
in a matter of days.

Option #2: Delay use of the treatment until double blind studies of EXO-CD24
are completed with the possibility that hundreds of patients die in the
interim and the economy is destroyed.

I would note that Jewish ethics is clear on the question of the placebo
effect: we have the rabbinical ruling (Yoma Chapter 8 Mishna 6) that
someone bit by a dog can eat the liver of that dog because the placebo
effect may save his life.

If kashrut rules can be violated for the sake of a placebo effect surely the
FDA requirement of double blind tests can be ignored at this critical time.

Policy makers already "crossed the FDA Rubicon" when we opted for the third
round of vaccinations without waiting for FDA approval of the move.

I hope that you see fit to publicly address this extremely urgent matter.
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