EDIT TO ADD FROM THE ARTICLE:
But the research, which was not a rigorous scientific study but simply an analysis of data, noted that the majority of patients given the medications were severely ill, on ventilators and had underlying health conditions. They were all men, mostly black, with a median age over 65 — demographics that placed them at higher risk for severe cases of the coronavirus.
Other studies of hydroxychloroquine have shown mixed results. An ongoing study at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine found that patients who received hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc were 44% less likely to die from COVID-19.
The Indian equivalent of the CDC recently published guidelines for prophylactic use of HCQ by frontline healthcare workers.
Revised advisory on the use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as prophylaxis for SARS-CoV-2 infection
https://www.icmr.gov.in/pdf/covid/techdoc/V5_Revised_advisory_on_the_use_of_HCQ_SARS_CoV2_infection.pdf
Also in India:
Critics Blast Trump For Taking HCQ As Preventative, But Police Officers in India Are Too, And Here’s How That’s Worked
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2020/05/21/police-in-india-given-hcq-as-prophylactic-n2569211
HCQ is effective as a preventative, and to keep an incipient infection from progressing. The VA was giving it to elderly men whose lungs were already destroyed who were dying on vents.
This makes me so angry I could scream.