RETRACTED: Treatment with Ivermectin Is Associated with Decreased Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: Analysis of a National Federated Database

Abstract

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal).This article has been retracted at the request of the authors.The abstract was presented as a poster in the IMED last year.Our study was about the association of Ivermectin with reduction in mortality in COVID, a retrospective study with many limitations (which is innate in these types of studies). As in any retrospective study, we could not control for all the confounding variables, mainly severity of disease in patients treated with either ivermectin or remdesivir. Another important caveat is that it was conducted in July 2021, eight months ago, when we did not have all the clinical evidence we have right now about ivermectin in COVID-19. We were very clear in the abstract conclusions that our results are only showing an “association”, they are not definitive, and further randomized clinical trials must be done to prove the efficacy of Ivermectin.However, the study has been misinterpreted by a significant number of people in the scientific community and the general population, stating that based on our study, ivermectin is effective to reduce COVID-19 mortality. We are really concerned about this problem because the patients may start taking or demanding this medication from their physicians, which can potentially be harmful. We know that a retrospective study like ours cannot be used to change or guide clinical practice. Retrospective studies are only helpful to formulate hypothesis that can be utilized to design clinical trials.This misrepresentation of the study may lead to a huge public health problem, since Ivermectin is a medication that is not FDA approved for COVID treatment, and currently has proven to be ineffective in clinical trials, which are truly the gold standard to evaluate the efficacy of a medication.