Added to what is quickly becoming a long list of trials that fail to demonstrate efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19.
There are plenty of observational studies that have been published with different conclusions, but observational studies are subject to many more confounding factors. One example is a recent retrospective analysis done with patients from the Henry Ford System that showed lower mortality with hydroxychloroquine...but when you look at the data you see that the hydroxychloroquine patients got steroids at a much higher rate.
I was very hopeful about the prospects for hydroxychloroquine, but it would be highly irresponsible of me to continue to be hopeful in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. I expect to see more studies released soon, such as the one for prophylaxis, which will likely come to the same conclusion.
The only cogent objection I hear to the randomized controlled trial results is that hydroxychloroquine was not co-administered with zinc. There is at least one trial ongoing with this combination, and I will be eager to see the results. I suspect they will be negative, though, because I'd expect that zinc would augment the function of hydroxychloroquine and we would likely see some effect with hcq alone if the hypothesis were correct.