Study on Hydroxychloroquine Appears to be Fraudulent

The company, Surgisphere, which did the study appears to have insufficient employees with the requisite expertise in either medicine or statistics, not to mention languages needed to compile data from foreign hospitals. Its numbers also don't match up to known facts.

theGuardian said:

An independent audit of the provenance and validity of the data has now been commissioned by the authors not affiliated with Surgisphere because of “concerns that have been raised about the reliability of the database”.

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The Guardian’s investigation has found:

• A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere’s employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess.
  
  
• The company’s LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.
  
  
• Until Monday, the “get in touch” link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.
  
  
• Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as “unfounded”.

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Both Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, which published studies based on Surgisphere's data, are expressing "concern".

There appears to have been fraud and a rush to judgement based on the urgency of immediate response to dire warnings during a pandemic.

Correction: multiple studies were based on the fraudulent data provided by Surgisphere.