because nothing is known to work yet for covid-19, doctors are doing the best they can with limited data. this means using unproven drugs for which, to the best of our knowledge, the risk-beneift is favorable. HCQ for covid-19 is an exampel of this: we dont know if it works, but it might, and it seems safe enough

the goal of studies like this are to strengthen the evidence base and remove those unknowns, so physicians can make evidence-based decisions. if the study is sufficiently poorly designed, it does not accomplish this goal, and can even lead to misinformation