Hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus: a guide to the scientific studies so far
The drug - now a partisan wedge issue - has fueled hype and hope, but evidence of its effectiveness remains limited
With endorsements from a controversial French physician, Fox News and Donald Trump, hydroxychloroquine - an old anti-malarial drug that is today more commonly used to treat lupus - has received a disproportionate amount of attention as a potential treatment for Covid-19.
It has also become another partisan political wedge issue in the US: conservative politicians and media figures have hyped studies that support the theory that the drug is a potential treatment. And on Wednesday, Rick Bright, the head of a US government agency charged with investing in treatments and responses for pandemics, said he was forced out of his job over his resistance to the administration's "misguided directives" promoting "broad use" of the drug, which he said "clearly lack scientific merit".
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