It was based on the results of 20 hydroxychloroquine-treated patients who started *and finished* the study, plus 16 "control" patients.

But it ignores that they started with 26 hydroxychloroquine-treated patients. 6 didn't finish the study (23%!) because they transferred to the ICU, died, or dropped out because of side effects. That's kind of important information to ignore.

Then you had fun things with their "study" design. For example, a full 25% of the "control" group was kids aged 10-14 who had no symptoms of COVID-19. (Did the researcher use his grandkids as part of his control group or something? How in the world would he choose 1/4 of his control group for this to be kids who didn't even have the virus?)

The second French study that "backs up" the first one is by the same guy. I doubt he learned proper experiment design in the week between the two studies so I am confident the second one is bogus, too.

Essentially the awful French study got promoted on Fox News, Trump picked it up and in his desperation for this all to turn around started touting it as a miracle cure. I am glad we are properly testing it, and I very much hope this or something else is found to work very soon, but actual evidence of its effectiveness does not exist yet.