The latest in @TheScientistLLC’s investigation into the enormous influence #Surgisphere has had on policy and research around the world. This installment: Latin America’s #ivermectin crisis. https://bit.ly/37IbGjy 

One of the (many) concerning things here is that people tried to warn Surgisphere’s collaborators, including @MRMehraMD, about data discrepancies more than a *month* ago—well before the #hydroxychloroquine study was published in @TheLancet.

Not only did the team still go ahead with publishing the Lancet paper, they left their preprint on #ivermectin sitting there for weeks, during which time it contributed to sweeping changes in coronavirus policies across Latin America.

Doctors in Peru tell me that desperate members of the public are turning to dangerous veterinary or black-market versions of the drug. So far, there have been no clinical trials showing ivermectin is effective against #COVID19.

Peru’s former health minister, @Pattyjannet1, was one of several researchers who tried to contact the study authors back in May. She never got a response. Now, she tells me, “it’s very difficult to erase what has been done.”