Yesterday we learned that a second major medical journal retracted a study about hydroxychoroquine based on data supplied by US company Surgisphere.
Today we have even more about this company.
As was reported earlier the highly respected Lancet medical journal retracted a major study about hydroxychloroquine and then the New England Journal of Medicine has yanked another study.
Both studies relied on data supplied by a U.S. analytics company called Surgisphere.
The Guardian reported.
A peer-reviewed Lancet study claimed that Surgisphere culled data from nearly 15,000 COVID-19 patients from 1,200 hospitals around the world. There is no evidence that it collected any data from anyone.
The bogus study by Lancet, a British company, said the anti-malarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, both of which have been touted by President Trump as a coronavirus treatment, were not only ineffective but possible deadly. Lancet said in the May 22 study that patients who used those drugs were more likely to show an irregular heart rhythm—a known side effect thought to be rare—and were more likely to die in the hospital.
Within days, some large trials of the drugs were halted. But after the Lancet retraction, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it would resume trials of the drugs.
The study in the New England Journal of Medicine, published on 1 May, said that taking certain blood pressure drugs, including angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, didn’t appear to increase the risk of death among COVID-19 patients, as some researchers had suggested. But after questions about Surgisphere, the journal has retracted the study.
The Guardian confirmed:
A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology,”
The type of science-fiction writings Surgishere’s Science Editor is involved in (from Yaacov Apelbaum) are identified below. Courtney Herz, is the writer’s name and here is her LinkedIn profile:
Below you can see some of her writings which appear to be fantasy:
Dr Sapan Desai, CEO of Surgisphere Corp. was recently in an interview where he discussed his company’s studies that were published (and now retracted). In the interview, Dr Desai states that he has a database with data on over 150,000 COVID patient’s, making it one of the largest databases in the world with such data.
He says that his company looked at more than 8,000 people with COVID to determine that hydroxychloroquine did not save lives as reported in his study. (It’s likely all of what is said here is not true.)
(hat tip Marty)
https://youtu.be/8WlPRnSEx-Y