It's not super clear yet what the mechanism of Chloroquine (and derivatives like HCQ) is in combating COVID-19 / Coronavirus, and I imagine people are not sure

It's not super clear yet what the mechanism of Chloroquine (and derivatives like HCQ) is in combating COVID-19 / Coronavirus, and I imagine people are not sure about Remdesivir either, except that it was previously developed as an Ebola treatment (ineffective), but also shown to be effective in some in vitro studies on SARS-COV-1. Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor or an expert. Chloroquine is suspected to have general prophylactic abilities (like Remdesivir), but also hypothesized that if taken with Zinc, [1] acts as an ionophore with which Zn2+ ions can inactivate the first part of the viral replication step. But at this time, clinical trials for HCQ have been somewhat mixed, with small N-size studies reporting weak benefits or lack of benefits. I don't know of any RCTs that include Zn2+ in the treatment group along with HCQ. It's still as yet unclear. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7F1cnWup9M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7F1cnWup9M