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Clinical trials Medicine Popular culture Quackery

Did hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) really kill 17,000 COVID-19 patients?

A recent study concludes that the rampant use of HCQ early in the pandemic could have resulted in 17,000 excess deaths. But did HCQ really do that? Possibly, but it’s complicated.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

Ivermectin goes from being the new hydroxychloroquine to being the new MMS

A recent VICE story described a Telegram channel devoted to promoting veterinary ivermectin to treat autism. It has echoes of autism quackery going back at least to the use of MMS (a kind of bleach) to “cure” autism by eliminating “parasites.”

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Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 7: Are there positive studies that aren’t fraudulent?

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, a drug repurposed for COVID-19 that almost certainly doesn’t work but is still being touted as a “miracle cure” by quacks, grifters, and political ideologues. Are the data supporting it all fraudulent and/or biased? The answer, increasingly, appears to be yes.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 6: More fraud?

Ivermectin has been hyped without good evidence as a highly effective treatment for COVID-19. One major “positive” ivermectin study was shown to be likely fraudulent. Now others are looking dicey.

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Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 5: But it won the Nobel Prize!

Ivermectin continues to be the new hydroxychloroquine, an unproven repurposed drug promoted to treat COVID-19. Now the advocates are pointing to the history of the drug’s developers being awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, as though that has anything to do with its effectiveness against COVID-19.