The authors noted that the increased prescriptions might not all be for Covid-19, as their data did not include for what purpose the drugs were prescribed.
Still, they wrote that the sudden surge of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine prescriptions may have affected availability for patients prescribed the drugs for uses approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, including for treating rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and malaria.
Some researchers thought chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine might be able to fight coronavirus based on initial laboratory analyses, and President Trump became a cheerleader for the treatment, calling it "very encouraging" and "very powerful" and a "game-changer."
But in recent studies of Covid-19 patients, the drugs have largely not stacked up.