Would doses have been stockpiled? Almost surely. Again, this was being used all over the world before Trump ever said anything. And no stock’s value spiked because of Trump touting a generic medication manufactured by any company that has the ability to make it. Would some moron who drank fish tank cleaner instead of talking to his doctor about actual medicine still be alive? Maybe but he seems dumb enough to have drank something else fatal in the interim so who knows.
My point was that the trials that the drug has undergone were not frivolous or caused by Trump or a waste of time. They were necessary and reasonable. And the compassionate use of the drug by physcians was reasonable as well since there was not necessarily any other treatment available. The level 0 thinkers are the ones who reflexively try to tie every piece of news to Donald Trump.
The fervor about hydroxychloroquine was indeed dumb and a waste of time, with both the media and Donald Trump to blame. But that’s what both of them do, so if it wasn’t this dumb controversy it would be something else.