Apart from the unverifiability of the data used, Dr. Steven Quay has pointed out a high-school-level error in the HCQ study co-authored by Dr. Sapan Desai (India’s answer to Neil Ferguson). The lead author is Mandeep Mehra, a Harvard professor.

The Mehra study has two variable inputs in it: Hydroxychloroquine and intubation with a ventilator.

The fact is buried in the paper and was likely missed by most readers.

What this means is that the increase in patient deaths could have been caused just as well by ventilator use. Actually, that has been the clinical experience of many physicians, given the nature of the hypoxia in Covid19, which seems to be a result of clotting in the lung. Ventilators are counter-productive.

Controlling for that mistake, HCQ, even in this unreliable study, is somewhat helpful.

Here, I should add something of which Dr. Quay is apparently not aware: HCQ is a zinc ionophore and should be used with zinc to get the excellent results that have been reported from all over the world.

No zinc was given in the Lancet study.