There's a lot of buzz on the internet about…hydroxychloroquine [a drug that] has been approved for decades, very cheap, used in malaria and certain autoimmune diseases.

Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director
White House Covid Task Force
March 19, 2020

Fauci, back in April of 2020 couldn't just ignore HCQ, despite his preference for the profitable remdesivir – not with all that "buzz on the internet." "The buzz" most likely had to do with doctors who were having success treating Covid patients with hydroxychloroquine. Plus on March 28, 2020 the FDA had given HCQ Emergency Use Authorization to treat Covid. It was important to appear that HCQ was given a serious chance, but the study the NIH put together was a half-hearted attempt at best, and designed to fail at worst.

NIH "study" says HCQ not effective in Covid-19, increases mortality:

In April 2020 the NIH did a short retrospective study on HCQ, meaning they analyzed the records of a couple hundred men over age 65 in VA hospitals, and found "no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with Covid-19." The analysis also concluded that overall mortality increased in patients treated with HCQ.

What the NIH Veterans Administration study failed to point out is that HCQ is most effective at onset of symptoms during the viral replication stage, not when a Covid patient is ill enough to be hospitalized and in the inflammation stage of the disease.
An Associated Press article published when the VA report was released on April 21, 2020 stated, "The drug (HCQ) has long been known to have potentially serious side effects, including altering the heartbeat in a way that could lead to sudden death."