We know that now, but in a major scientific misstep that I believe gives partial culpability to science for the widespread misbelief, is that first major study published in The Lancet showing hydroxychloroquine to be ineffective actually was full of statistical errors that were severe and it was retracted.
We now have better studies showing hydroxychloroquine to be ineffective, but the first study everyone went off of showing it to be useless... actually was bunk. And not just a little bunk, "A first-year statistics major could tell you about major flaws in the design of the analysis." This, of course, was a major help to conspiracies and confused doctors, as why would everyone be using such a flawed study to claim hydroxychloroquine is ineffective? I get why it would look political.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/lancet-retracts-l...
We now have better studies showing hydroxychloroquine to be ineffective, but the first study everyone went off of showing it to be useless... actually was bunk. And not just a little bunk, "A first-year statistics major could tell you about major flaws in the design of the analysis." This, of course, was a major help to conspiracies and confused doctors, as why would everyone be using such a flawed study to claim hydroxychloroquine is ineffective? I get why it would look political.