Doctors demand answers from Pence about distribution of COVID-19 drug remdesivir: ‘Who’s making the decision? Trump?’

Hospitals and doctors are mystified by the distribution process for the COVID-19 drug remdesivir -- and they're demanding answers from the Trump administration.

The antiviral medication has been granted emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration after showing promise as a treatment, but they don't understand why some hospitals with fewer cases are getting the drug before hospitals with many COVID-19 patients, reported STAT.

“We know who the vendor is — AmerisourceBergen — but we don’t actually know who is making the decision," said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, of the University of California, San Francisco. "Is it Trump? Is it FEMA? Is it science-informed?”

The Infectious Diseases Society of America and its HIV Medicine Association sent a letter Wednesday asking Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials to provide public transparency for the distribution process.

“Those of us on the frontlines treating people with Covid-19 need to know what the criteria are and where this drug is going to be available and why those places were selected,” said Dr. Daniel Kaul, of the University of Michigan. “All of us want to make sure limited resources are used in the most efficient fashion … The government entity making this decision should reveal itself and it should state its criteria.”

Massachusetts General Hospital, for example, seemed like an obvious candidate with 381 patients on Wednesday, but two other hospitals with just 102 and 52 patients received doses of remdesivir instead -- and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, with 248 cases, and Boston Medical Center, with 238, aren't expected to get any, either.

“Today, the family of a dying patient asked me why we do not have RDV,” said Benjamin Linas, a Boston Medical Center infectious disease specialist. “What am I supposed to say?”