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At the White House press briefing later that day, Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared to throw cold water on the theory, calling the evidence anecdotal.

By this point, social media mentions had spiked, and Trump's Facebook and Twitter posts diminished in relevance because discussion over the drug jumped into the mainstream.

In the weeks that followed, the president repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine in his daily briefings, and there's no doubt that the amplification of scientifically unproven claims on social media has helped raise the profile of the drug, the true effectiveness of which on COVID-19 remains to be seen -- or not seen.

Editor's note:An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the below quote to Gregory Rigano when it was in fact from James Todaro.

Todaro told ABC News that there was collaboration with a Stanford researcher but could not name the person. He also said that neither Google nor Twitter gave him a reason as to why the document was removed.\"Our paper was not some flash-in-the-pan hoax,\" he wrote in a message. \"Yet Google treated it just like that upon taking it down.\"

What to know about the coronavirus:

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

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