Among the studies used to promote the use of ivermectin for prophylaxis or treatment of Covid-19, two significant ones have been shown to have enormous errors or outright fraud over recent months. One was the study by Elgazzar that played a prominent role in meta-analyses purporting to show a significant benefit to the use of ivermectin in treating Covid-19. Just recently a study by Dr. Hector Carvallo in Argentina that purported to show an astonishing 100% protection against Covid-19 infection among the health workers who supposedly used it prophylactically has been shown to have multiple inconsistencies and improbabilities.
Both studies were significant to the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), a group headed by Dr. Pierre Kory.
A lengthy report (in BuzzFeed of all places!) details attempts to track down the original data from the study by Carvallo, tries to verify the participation of the hospitals ostensibly involved, traces out impossibilities among the data, and reveals the journal in which it was published to be a predatory pay-to-play publication. Carvallo responded to reporters by saying that after the pandemic is over, he would release the underlying data, which supposedly shows enormous benefits of the drug. Read the words of FLCCC leader Pierre Kory at the time of its publication: “We just came across a trial last night from Argentina by the lead investigator of ivermectin in Argentina, Hector Carvallo. They prophylaxed 800 healthcare workers. Not one got sick.”
“Not one got sick“? Such an astonishing result (is any medication or treatment 100% effective?) would have revolutionized the prevention of Covid-19, if it were true. (And would have prevented ivermectin user Dr. Kory from catching the virus himself last month.)
In an interview, Carvallo explained that he is vaccinated, and that he would not encourage anyone to use ivermectin instead of being vaccinated: “What I want for ivermectin is to be considered as another possibility among the repurposed drugs. Not the best one, not the only one, just another one. And not to be considered a challenge to vaccines. That would be stupid, because they are different.”
