Study of 349 low-risk hospitalized patients with 151 non-consenting or ineligible patients used as controls. SOC included zinc, vitamin C and vitamin D. A statistically significant improvement in PCR negativity is shown at day 7 with HCQ treatment, 52.1% (HCQ) versus 35.7% (control), p=0.001, but no statistically significant difference at day 14, or in progression. Patients were relatively young and there was no mortality. Only 3% of patients had any disease progression and all patients recovered, so there is little if any room for treatment benefit. Progression among higher-risk patients with comorbidities was lower with treatment (12.9% versus 28.6%, p=0.3, very few cases).Despite the title, this is not an RCT since patients self-selected the arm, or were chosen based on allergies/contraindications. The treatment group had about twice the number of patients with comorbidities. Treatment delay is unknown - it was recorded but not reported in the paper.Viral load was not measured. As with other studies, PCR may detect non-replicable viral nucleic acid, this is more likely at day 14. Details on the test accuracy are not provided, authors note that RT-PCR sensitivity ranges from 34-80%.


Effect extraction follows pre-specified rules prioritizing more serious outcomes. For an individual study the most serious outcome may have a smaller number of events and lower statistical signficance, however this provides the strongest evidence for the most serious outcomes when combining the results of many trials.