In a compassionate use clinical trial published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, 36 out of 53, or 68%, of COVID-19 patients witnessed an improvement in oxygen support after three weeks of treatment with remdesivir. Since the study was conducted without the use of a placebo cohort (or control arm), it cannot definitively be concluded the drug has a positive effect on patients. For example, the 68% improvement in oxygen intake could simply be attributed to patients' own immune system fighting off the pathogens