There are a lot of things that make sense in "3rd World" countries that don't make sense here. I'm not saying it's not useful at all, just that it has become clear that there are other treatments and now the vaccines as preventives, that are much more effective than HCQ. On the other hand, if you're the Indian government and needing to come up with something back in February or March of last year, to provide some degree of emergency protection to your country's massive horde of healthcare workers, many of whom are working in 3rd World conditions, HCQ made sense. It was already widely distributed due to being in common use as an antimalarial, and was already being manufactured in India so easy to ramp up production further.
Mayo Clinic tried it too, in a clinical trial as a preventive for their heathcare workers. It just didn't pan out as hugely effective.
There are a lot of things that make sense in "3rd World" countries that don't make sense here. I'm not saying it's not useful at all, just that it has become clear that there are other treatments and now the vaccines as preventives, that are much more effective than HCQ. On the other hand, if you're the Indian government and needing to come up with something back in February or March of last year, to provide some degree of emergency protection to your country's massive horde of healthcare workers, many of whom are working in 3rd World conditions, HCQ made sense. It was already widely distributed due to being in common use as an antimalarial, and was already being manufactured in India so easy to ramp up production further.
Mayo Clinic tried it too, in a clinical trial as a preventive for their heathcare workers. It just didn't pan out as hugely effective.