It depends on the risk profile. A loss of hair for a cancer drug won't be a big deal but might be problematic for common cold.

I won't have that side effect anyway

Took me a while, but i see what you did there ;)

Yes, same here - I'm the star of the Bald & Beautiful in my family, but I don't want to influence my receding hair choices to them, unless you plan on landing male role in future Fast & Furious, Die Hard, or any Rock-infused movie.

This is no common cold, specially for people 60+ years old.

Even if it's already approved for human use, we still need to test for efficacy before prescribing it to everyone. See also: remdesivir, favipiravir, Prezcobix, chloroquine and ruxolitinib, among many others.

Why? If side effects are marginal and well understood, just start using it and see how well it does.

What's the functional difference between that and a clinical trial, from the perspective of the patients?

It would be essentially a clinical trial, an open-label one.

There even have been several blinded trials, that were discontinued mid-way, because the drugs being tested were so effective.

To continue giving placebo and denying obvious cure would be unethical, and so the trial was stopped, placebo arm cancelled - and everyone got the actual medicine.

in a trial, you get invited and you might be placeboed out as a control.

in the “just try it and see scenario”, you offer it as a possibility, and everyone who ops in, gets it.

it might not be as scientifically rigorous, but that's a big difference to the patient who suffers from receiving a placebo instead of the real deal

“It does require trials in humans to determine if it’s effective, and I suspect it would also require pre-clinical animal work with SARS-CoV-2 specifically before human trials could start. If it has been shown to be safe for clinical use in other countries, it may be fast-tracked for FDA approval or the FDA may authorize emergency off-label use[with no need for clinical trials],” said Rasmussen, indicating that the FDA will have to examine safety data and pre-clinical data before determining which, if any course of action to take with investigating the drug further.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2020/03/03/ther...

It depends whether you want to know if it actually works.