https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="collectie" aria-label="Emoji: collectie">The TOGETHER trial purports to show that Ivermectin doesn& #39;t provide any benefit. It& #39;s given top billing in the NEJM and is now splashed everywhere on the medical news. It& #39;s a completely awful study that should not have passed review.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2115869?articleTools=true">https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/1...

/2 The 1st and most damaging issue that the trial was conducted in an area where IVM use was already exceptionally high. They **DID NOT EXCLUDE** for prior IVM use. Only "known hypersensitivity" to tested drugs. Case closed. This trial cannot deliver interpretable results.

/3a
The randomization of the TOGETHER trial was **NOT RANDOM.**
The trial protocol states: "Participants are randomly assigned with equal allocation (...) Allocation of participants to treatment arms is uniform across all concurrent interventions as well as placebo."

/3b
Did the TOGETHER randomization process equally and randomly assign patients to various arms in equal measures at equal times?
No. Case closed. This trial didn& #39;t even follow its own protocols.

/4
Finally, as an obvious nail in the coffin, if patients were randomly assigned, and the placebo was inert, and they had no reason to suspect they weren& #39;t getting the treatment they wished, there wouldn& #39;t be this ENORMOUS drop-out gap with only 40% adhering to placebo (WTF?):