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Official Blog of the AALS Section on Contracts

Get Ur Hydroxychloroquine Here! Fresh Hydroxychloroquine (or Slightly Used)!

Ugh.  As The Frontier reports here, Oklahoma (my home state!) is trying to unload $2 million worth of hydroxychloroquine that it bought in April 2020.  Our Governor (the first governor to contract COVID-19), bought the drugs based on an insider tip that it could be used to prevent COVID or minimize its symptoms.  Funny thing.  That very tipster contracted COVID and got a very aggressive course of treatment that, as far as we know, did not include hydroxychloroquine, probably because the drug is ineffective and can have dangerous side-effects.  Hydroxychloroquine.svg
The drugs would not go to waste, Governor Stitt assured skeptics, because it can be used for its intended purpose, as an anti-malarial treatment, even if it turns out it is not helpful for treating COVID.  Well, it isn’t, and now the state is trying to return the surplus to its supplier.  Hard to imagine what possible basis it can have for returning the goods.  Will OK argue that its entire purpose was frustrated when it learned that the drugs did not work as they were NOT advertised to work?  Detrimental reliance on the President’s representations?  Mental incapacity caused by magical thinking?  Creative minds are at work here in the state capital.  The Governor was speculating, based on anecdotal evidence, that the drug would be effective.  That makes about as much sense as playing the lottery with public funds.  

If the attempt to return the goods fails, perhaps climate change will bring catastrophic floods to Oklahoma, creating a malarial swamp.  Best to hold on to the stockpile of hyroxychloroquine just in case.