Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Medicine Science

Influential Ivermectin Study Accused of 'Totally Faked' Data (theguardian.com) 217

"The efficacy of a drug being promoted by rightwing figures worldwide for treating Covid-19 is in serious doubt," reports the Guardian, "after a major study suggesting the treatment is effective against the virus was withdrawn due to 'ethical concerns'." The preprint study on the efficacy and safety of ivermectin — a drug used against parasites such as worms and headlice — in treating Covid-19, led by Dr Ahmed Elgazzar from Benha University in Egypt, was published on the Research Square website in November. It claimed to be a randomised control trial, a type of study crucial in medicine because it is considered to provide the most reliable evidence on the effectiveness of interventions due to the minimal risk of confounding factors influencing the results...

A medical student in London, Jack Lawrence, was among the first to identify serious concerns about the paper, leading to the retraction... He found the introduction section of the paper appeared to have been almost entirely plagiarised. It appeared that the authors had run entire paragraphs from press releases and websites about ivermectin and Covid-19 through a thesaurus to change key words. "Humorously, this led to them changing 'severe acute respiratory syndrome' to 'extreme intense respiratory syndrome' on one occasion," Lawrence said.

The data also looked suspicious to Lawrence... "In their paper, the authors claim that four out of 100 patients died in their standard treatment group for mild and moderate Covid-19," Lawrence said. "According to the original data, the number was 0, the same as the ivermectin treatment group. In their ivermectin treatment group for severe Covid-19, the authors claim two patients died, but the number in their raw data is four..." Lawrence contacted an Australian chronic disease epidemiologist from the University of Wollongong, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, and a data analyst affiliated with Linnaeus University in Sweden who reviews scientific papers for errors, Nick Brown, for help analysing the data and study results more thoroughly... "The main error is that at least 79 of the patient records are obvious clones of other records," Brown told the Guardian. "It's certainly the hardest to explain away as innocent error, especially since the clones aren't even pure copies. There are signs that they have tried to change one or two fields to make them look more natural..."

Meyerowitz-Katz told the Guardian that "this is one of the biggest ivermectin studies out there", and it appeared to him the data was "just totally faked".

Meta-analyses incorporating the "just totally faked" data were then published in Oxford Academic's Open Forum Infectious Diseases and in the American Journal of Therapeutics.

Meanwhile, the Guardian also notes a new (and peer-reviewed) paper that was just published last month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Its finding? Iermectin is "not a viable option to treat COVID-19 patients".
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Influential Ivermectin Study Accused of 'Totally Faked' Data

Comments Filter:
  • Bleach (Score:3, Funny)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Saturday July 17, 2021 @05:49PM (#61592703)

    I still feel like injecting bleach, like Dr. Trump encouraged people to do, might succeed in killing the virus.

    • Re:Bleach (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Saturday July 17, 2021 @05:58PM (#61592729)

      It seems like the modern Trump Party is all about being anti-mainstream. So if the mainstream says something they reflexively insist on refuting it. Thus, goofball medicine gets accepted as fact by these people, causing them to ignore whatever the mainstream says even if it's safe and effective. There's no use of brainpower here except to lash out. Fauci is their enemy for daring to not agree with the president. Remdesivir is ok though because Trump took it for his covid case, which is no worse than the common flu and which children are immune to and grandmothers are willing to die of if it will help the economy even though the virus is a fake and also engineered by the Chinese to infect us with socialism. It all makes sense once you stop thinking about it. Thinking is a libral plot anyway.

    • Technically yes,
      the bleach will certainly succeed in killing the virus.
      The trouble is that the virus will not be the only thing killed.

      But, hey! Don't let a new marketing opportunity go to waste:
      You can now rebrand your bleach shorts as a
      "Broad-spectrum killing solution".

    • Worst part, you're not wrong...
      It'll also kill the host, but hey, collateral damage, amiright?

    • by Macdude ( 23507 )

      I still feel like injecting bleach, like Dr. Trump encouraged people to do, might succeed in killing the virus.

      It is 100% effective at killing the virus but with the minor side effect of it killing the host -- you'll have to judge whether that's acceptable to you or not.

  • "a drug used against parasites such as worms and headlice"

    IOW the exact illnesses that upstairs people think that downstairs people have, so it can't hurt to sell it to them.

    • In a previous life, we used to give cattle Ivermectin on a regular cycle, to supplant the negative effects of parasites and promote weight gain in the herd... in much the same manner as folks inject farmed creatures bound for the butcher with antibiotics. We'd run the cattle through chutes to restrict their movement in order to inject the Ivermectin.

      Cows don't like to be forced through chutes (narrow fenced corridors), so it was necessary to work above the corral to incentivize their movement toward the hea [tractorsupply.com]

  • Follow the leader. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Saturday July 17, 2021 @06:26PM (#61592797) Journal

    Meta-analyses relying on the "just totally faked" data were then published in Oxford Academic's Open Forum Infectious Diseases and in the American Journal of Therapeutics.

    This is the real story right here. It's like a car accident, with everyone else behind it stepping on the gas.

  • by phalse phace ( 454635 ) on Saturday July 17, 2021 @06:43PM (#61592829)

    The only real and effective cures for Covid-19 is either a specially formulated Silver Solution [newsweek.com] or the Superblue Fluoride-Free Toothpaste [newsweek.com].

    Everything else is fake.

  • I'm shocked I tell you shocked.

  • "a drug used against parasites such as worms and headlice"

    Ah, well then Trumpists probably already have Ivermectin in their medicine cabinet.
  • They're supposed to take it with Zinc, right SuperKendall?

  • by Mr307 ( 49185 ) on Saturday July 17, 2021 @10:22PM (#61593239)

    So 1 study is pulled and thats all the evidence anyone needs. So if someone found a study that was pulled about something else its off the table as well right?

    Was 1 of 18 other studies in this meta analyses:
    https://journals.lww.com/ameri... [lww.com]

    • That particular study isn't the one I see most-often cited by proponents of ivermectin. Usually it's the Argentina study:

      https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2... [clinicaltrials.gov]

    • So 1 study is pulled and thats all the evidence anyone needs.

      If you read to the end of TFS you'd realise one study was pulled and another study disproved the claim of the first. So we're already at 2 in a summary just 3 paragraphs and 3 statements long. If you can't make it to the end of a single summary, how can anyone take you seriously?

      • by Mr307 ( 49185 )

        Many more studies, hand wave all of them away 'these are not the studies you are looking for':

        https://ivmmeta.com/ [ivmmeta.com]

        • I haven't handwaved anything. I haven't actually discredited anything either. I simply called you stupid for your inability to read. I'm calling you stupid again now for... well... given your reply, still the inability to read.

  • I am not doctor or researcher, but I am scientifically minded (at least as much as the average Slashdot readership) and the following disturbs me:

    Right vs left wing battles entering science. This issue should be about facts, and I've seen anti scientific attitudes on both sides. If you tell me Trump is an idiot and injecting bleach is a bad idea, you're correct, but you're beating a dead horse. Trump Derangement Syndrome and speech suppression is clearly at play here by well-meaning people who know nothing about how science work. The best counter example to the Guardian's claim of right wingers supporting Ivremectin is Dr Brett Weinstein and Dr Heather Heying continuing search for the truth including on Ivremectin, and they can definitely not be characterized as right wingers. I invite you to see for yourself and listen to their DarkHorse podcast on odysee.com

    Fauci. I had a lot of sympathy for the guy when he had to stand by Trump and listen to the bleach and UV crap talk. However. Fauci LIED to the american people on masks, at a time when he knew they would be effective. Fauci dismissed the lab leak hypothesis without proper consideration. Also, Fauci can't give a straight answer on funding for gain-of-function research and always seems to weasel his way out of enquiries on the topic. Fauci colluded with Zuckerberg (more on that later) to suppress public scientific discussion. He might be a well meaning guy, but I just don't trust him. At all.

    Google/Youtube/Facebook suppressing speech by removing posts / videos / searches on non officially approved topics. In science, the more discussion the better. The only way to figure out the truth is through speech. Sure, some (regardless of how well intentionned) will make mistakes. But the other option is an appointed few deciding what is wrong-think outside of all accountability.

    • https://odysee.com/@BretWeinst... [odysee.com] Where the Guardian article and topic are discussed
    • Mod up. Without free speech lobbyists have far too much manipulative power. There are reasons why Ivermectin and others are rubbished, including those behind FDA emergency approval. Then where in time does it work ? In the first 24 hours, or after hospital admission - or inbetween. With and without other drugs/vitamins/other. For sure, getting arms jabbed will save lives. People don't take tablets when they forget, and then that causes mutations too. What if fully vaccinated people take it - to lower vacci
  • It appears that "rightwing figures" are dead set on killing their base.
    • by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      It appears that "rightwing figures" are dead set on killing their base.

      No, that would be the democrats. Covid-19 cases if you look at where they are show up red hot the more democrat they vote. Yet another good example are the dimwit lawmakers from Texas that flew to Washington DC. No masks, miller beer and all. Turns out 3 of them are now infected at least. It also turns out they didn't get the vaccine. WHY? I just don't fricking get it.

      Guys drowning - throw him a life preserver. Oh, I don't want that life preserver. I read where someone drown using one of those. What about t

  • Like the bar association of India..

  • This study was published and supposedly peer-reviewed. Should that call into question the process of peer-review and publishing in general?

  • I cannot even keep up with all the many politically motivated lies told about Covid. This while the US government, and social media, conspire to censor the truth.
    We can never trust medical science again.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I find it fascinating that a large group of techies has not looked at and evaluated https://ivmmeta.com/ [ivmmeta.com], an ongoing meta-analysis of ivermectin and other treatments.

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars. -- J. Paul Getty

Working...