At a time when the nations of the world were recording about 15,000 COVID deaths per day, Dr. Andrew Hill of the University of Liverpool was about to publish a meta-analysis for the World Health Organization and other leading health agencies indicating the remarkable effectiveness of a repurposed drug in treating COVID-19, reducing hospitalization by some 80%.
But when he published his highly influential pre-print paper on Jan. 18, 2021, his stated conclusion didn't match the study's findings.
Instead of urging physicians around the world who were desperate for solutions to try the safe and effective drug, Hill wrote: "Ivermectin should be validated in larger appropriately controlled randomized trials before the results are sufficient for review by regulatory authorities."
The English researcher's turnabout didn't go unnoticed.
A colleague, Dr. Tess Lawrie, confronted Hill in a remarkable Zoom video conversation that was recorded and featured in a short documentary produced by Oracle Films.
Lawrie, the director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Bath, England, got Hill to admit that his non-profit sponsors, UNITAID, pressured him to alter his conclusion.
UNITAID bills itself as a "global health agency." It's funded by vaccine promoters such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which committed $120 million to an expensive ivermectin competitor, a Merck drug called molnupiravir. Some medical scientists have warned that the genotoxic molnupiravir could cause viral mutants and worsen the pandemic.
"I think I'm in a very sensitive position here," Hill told Lawrie.