There is some evidence it may be useful as a prophylactic to prevent infection, and it is presently undergoing trials.

More reading:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32074550

https://www.recipharm.com/press/recipharm-notes-increased-de...

https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/988648/...

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04303507

https://www.pharmacytimes.com/news/potential-pipeline-medica...

https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/comment/parallel-e...

There is some evidence supporting its use, e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/32150618/

It should help alleviating the symptoms, but is in no way a antiviral.

There's a phase 3 trial for treating pneumonia associated with coronavirus. This is based on prior work showing anti-inflammatory response in rheumatoid arthritis (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8278823).

Note that the trial is happening in China (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04261517), where the barriers of entry and approval are quite low.

> After randomization, subjects take hydroxychloroquine 400mg per day for 5 days, also take conventional treatments.

Huh. I'm on 200mg/day for rheumatoid arthritis.

I wonder if I ought to double dose for a while.

Sorry for the late reply: I don't see how it would prevent infection. It could be useful post-infection, to prevent complications and inflammation. Compared that with the standard of care right now which is simply observing the patient during their recovering.

There are a fair amount of studies who took the initial in vitro results (i.e. cell culture) suggesting non-specific antiviral activity (at that level coca-cola is also an antiviral, antimicrobial, and antitumoral, by the way), into animal or human, and they just did not pan out, because it isn't an antiviral.

Thank you.

I'll ask my rheumatologist about increasing the dose. In case I get infected, have trouble breathing, and can't get hospital care.

They're looking at it.