Joint Statement of the FLCCC Alliance and British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group on Retraction of Early Research on Ivermectin

A reexamination of the data without the earlier research continues to prove that ivermectin is effective in preventing and treating COVID-19 WASHINGTON, D.C. and BATH, SOMERSET, U.K. -The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), a group of highly published, world-renowned critical care physicians and scholars, and the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group (BIRD), a U.K. based group of medical and scientific experts from over 15 countries, are concerned over the misrepresentation of science in the recent article published in the Guardian regarding the withdrawal of Professor Emeritus Ahmed Elgazzar!s study into ivermectin that was first posted December 16, 2020. Contrary to the voices quoted in the article, there is no scientific basis to state that the removal of one study from meta-analyses would "reverse results.!#Worryingly, this article!s insinuation is reported as if it is fact. According to the most recent analyses by BIRD, excluding the Elgazzar data from the cited metaanalyses by Bryant and Hill does not change the conclusions of these reviews, with the findings still clearly favouring ivermectin for both prevention and treatment. This article raise questions of journalistic integrity and we invite the Guardian to make appropriate corrections to the reporting and properly check the veracity of their claims. $This is not just about correcting facts but about people!s lives," said Dr. Tess Lawrie, director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy and organizer of the BIRD group. $Ivermectin is already in use around the world and can reach the poorest people long before other expensive COVID treatments will ever get to them. Ivermectin has an ever-increasing evidence base that shows that it works -even the prestigious Institute Pasteur in France has confirmed that the evidence is sound." $When we examine the extensive evidence on ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 without this latest study, we still see a significant reduction in the spread of COVID-19 as well as a reduction in hospitalizations and death," said Dr. Pierre Kory, president and chief medical officer of the FLCCC. $All science needs to be scrutinized. As some of the most published researchers in our fields, we are used to having our work examined by others. I hope that Dr. Elgazzar!s work will be impartially judged and any errors that might be found are corrected.