The Lancet strives to peer review to publish medical articles which are beyond reproach, they are the oldest medical journal and not some tabloid or fringy news outlet.
Various countries started a number of trials before The Lancet article pulled all the data together for the 93,000 patients in the study. In fact, the Lancet article mentioned that there were a number of small studies and those insufficiently supported by small data sets. Now that this much data has been collected and analyzed, it'd be hard to imagine the new trials coming up with new and unique results at this point.
The bottom line is still that prescribed doses are effective for malaria and other intended purposes, BUT according to the article there is:
- no prevention of COVID-19,
- no effect on patients who have COVID-19,
- it can kill you,
- a side effect is that it can create heart arrhythmia, which can lead to more severe problems in us older folks.
If you want to be like Trump (risking that he wasn't lying) and take it then go for it, knowing those risks.
fwiw - Traveling like I used to, we'd use the anti-malarial meds a lot and I've seen side effects of mis-using hydroxy twice in 32 years, once on a flight to India and once in Cameroon. None of us knew it till there was a problem, but a co-worker swallowed extra before and after getting getting on the flight to India. (Traveling with him something always happened.) He later said that he thought if a little is good a lot is probably better. He was irrational and mildly bouncing off the walls before the plane landed and we could get a doctor involved and figure out what was going on. Not a good time for any of us and we ultimately had to baby-sit him in a Bangalore hotel for a day. He would've been in real trouble if he'd been alone. The time in Cameroon the guy who took it did have a heart arrythmia when we were in a sweat-house of a boot-sucking mud in a hot steamy jungle. We thought he was having a heart attack and carrying him out for about a km was an absolute bitch. Once in an air conditioned car he started to do a bit better but it continued till getting to a hospital. In Cameroon, which is about as 3rd world as you get.
imho - hydroxy is nothing to F*ck around with, but again you get to make your own choice.