I'll leave that thought with you then
There are indeed many studies that suggest that treating people with
early-stage COVID infections (mostly in an
outpatient / pre-hospitalisation setting) with anti-inflammatory drugs such as Hydroxychloroquine, is
quite likely to
somewhat reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death. The evidence is sufficiently strong to suggest that prescription of an anti-inflammatory for vulnerable people when they get their initial diagnosis might be helpful. It looks like this is because a lot of the dangerous symptoms that a COVID infection produces are basically inflammatory in nature, and the most lethal effect seems to be due to vascular inflammation (including in the lungs), rather than the more typical respiratory impairment found in, for example, influenza. So reducing that inflammation at an early stage can reduce the severity of the disease's progression.
But there is almost no evidence to suggest that Hydroxychloroquine 'cures' COVID or is some sort of 'wonder-drug' that everyone should have been taking. The problem is that Hydroxychloroquine got widely promoted by lunatics and charlatans as some sort of 'secret' and 'miracle' cure (or prophylactic), rather than one of many drugs that were somewhat useful in treatment. And this fuelled a reaction by knowledgeable people, with medical professionals saying,
'please don't just dose yourself up with this, as it is not a cure' and also,
'please don't kill people who actually need drug this for other serious conditions, by using up all the supply'. It also helped to support a whole panoply of COVID-deniers and anti-vaccine lunatics, who undermined sensible public-health measures and the use of life-saving vaccines.
So medical evidence for Hydroxychloroquine being useful is there. But touting Hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure probably did no good (and maybe reduced its availability for effective use by medics) and probably helped to kill hundreds of thousands of people.