Everyone is misunderstanding the role of hydroxychloroquine... Remember how when HCQ was first mentioned, there were some who noted that zinc was necessary for the HCQ to work?   Actually, that's quite backwards.  HCQ is in the regimen to enable the zinc to work. Zinc is the active ingredient in the HCQ/zinc/azithromycin regimen, functioning as an anti-viral agent, but it is not easily absorbed into cells.  HCQ acts as a zinc ionophore to enable greater absorption.  I expect that natural ionophores like pyrithione or hinokitiol may work as well as HCQ.  The Japanese are exploring this.  What this means of course is that all the fuss about HCQ is nonsense, based upon a complete misunderstanding of the drug's action.