I think the occam's razor explanation is in the tweet near the bottom of that article: "As a layperson observer who’s watched this battle play out, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that it’s a mixed bag: Helpful for some, neutral for others, potentially dangerous for others susceptible to certain side effects."
That would jive with everything we know about the drug and its side effects as well as even the worst studies. "better than nothing for folks who are already struggling," you know?
Doctors tend to be risk averse, I find it difficult to believe that 30% of them would give these drugs to a healthy family member just because they were exposed to someone with COVID. Certainly not ones who are young. Doctors just don't do that kind of thing because of potential lawsuits alone. I would love to see how the question was actually phrased.
But lets say it was a fair question.
The link to the where the author found that study has this statement:
"A new survey from Jackson & Coker shows an overwhelming majority of doctors would prescribe hydroxychloroquine or another anti-malaria drug to a family member suffering from Wuhan coronavirus." (Wuhan coronavirus, that's not an indicator of any kind of bias...)
From the actual Coker study, 30% of doctors said they would prescribe the medications to prevent onset of symptoms. So one could also write "A new survey from Jackson & Coker shows an overwhelming majority of doctors would not prescribe hydroxychloroquine or another anti-malaria drug to a family member as a preventative measure against COVID-19."
Two statements from the same study with completely different implications.
The lead statement says "Sixty-five percent of physicians across the United States said they would prescribe the anti-malaria drugs chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent COVID-19 in a family member," which simply isn't what the data say. 67% said they would use it to treat
themselves, not a family member, and only 30% said they would use it as a preventative. And how is 30% a significant number and 65% an "overwhelming majority"? If 30% is significant, than the other 70% is not even a significant majority. It's just stupid.
This is just another example of the shit that's circulating on the internet to mislead others. All it ends up doing is denigrating the work of the actual study because now it appears biased and worthless.