The battle over hydroxychloroquine began as a kind of trivial but apparently earnest and hopeful celebrity endorsement of the drug (the celebrity being President Trump). It has devolved into a real political and public-discourse horror show.

Perpetual back-and-forths between those prominent doctors who do not believe in the drug’s effectiveness — coronavirus task force members Anthony Fauci and Brett Giroir are two — and dissident, lesser-known doctors, such as Harvey Risch of Yale University, have given birth to serious questions about how truly scientific the whole conversation has been.