The concept of moralisation of health behaviours was introduced in social psychology to describe the attribution of moral properties to habits and conditions like smoking or being a vegetarian. Moral properties are powerful motivators for people and institutions, as they may trigger blame, stigma, and appraisal, as well as the polarisation of interest and scientific hype. Here I extend the concept and illustrate how medicines and treatments can be seen as if they had moral properties, too, when they come to be regarded as good or bad in the moral sense, and not just in the instrumental sense of benefiting or harming health. I propose the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) controversy of 2020 as an example of moralisation of a medicine. HCQ and chloroquine are anti-malarial drugs, whose off-label use for Covid-19 was hotly discussed in the early months of the pandemic, both in the media and within the scientific community, and eventually dismissed when robust evidence came out. The point of the paper is to show that moralisation of health products and treatments may influence individual and institutional decisions in significant ways, and also affect research. For these reasons, it should be carefully monitored and critically assessed.

健康行为道德化的概念被引入社会心理学中，以描述道德属性对习惯和条件（如吸烟或素食）的归因。道德属性是人和机构的强大动力，因为它们可能引发指责、耻辱和评价，以及利益两极分化和科学炒作。在这里，我扩展了这个概念，并说明了如何将药物和治疗视为具有道德属性，当它们在道德意义上被视为好或坏时，而不仅仅是在有益或有害健康的工具意义上。我提出 2020 年的羟氯喹 (HCQ) 争议作为药物道德化的一个例子。 HCQ 和氯喹是抗疟疾药物，其在 Covid-19 的适应证外使用在大流行的最初几个月引起了媒体和科学界的热烈讨论，但最终在强有力的证据出现后被驳回。本文的目的是表明健康产品和治疗的道德化可能会以重大方式影响个人和机构的决策，也会影响研究。由于这些原因，应该仔细监测和严格评估。