"Surgisphere," the Bullshit Company That Put Out the Bullshit Anti-Hydroxychloroquine Bullshit Study That All the Leftwing and Pseudoright Twitter Bullshitters Bit Hard On, Disintegrates

Apparently this "company" -- which I'm not sure was a real company -- has reacted to scrutiny by simply dissolving away.

Almost like it was a political hit job fake news op from the beginning -- and all of our very smartest Very Online Twitter Addicts fell for it.

As could easily be predicted. "Orange Man Bad" needs no confirmatory experimental evidence.

Remember Surgisphere? That was the name of the company that allegedly gathered data from hundreds of hospitals around the world and subsequently published a research paper claiming people treated with hydroxychloroquine were more likely to die than those who were not. That paper made international news at the time, but dozens of doctors questioned the credibility of its data. The paper was eventually retracted and, as of today, it appears Surgisphere is no more...

Indeed, if you click on Surgisphere’s website you just get a message saying "This Site Is Suspended."

When doctors initially wrote to Lancet, the journal that published the study, to question the validity of the research, Surgisphere claimed it could provide all of the data to back up its claims. But things took a turn when the Guardian revealed some of the company’s staff had rather unusual resumes.

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 whose professional profile suggests writing is her fulltime job.Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess, who also acts in videos for organisations.

Lancet demanded an independent peer-review investigation, but Surgisphere now says it will not cooperate with anyone.

The main "researcher" behind this political op turns out to be a serial fraudster:

It looks like Dr. Desai's entire history is full of fraudulent claims. His Wikipedia page was flagged 10 years ago because people noticed many of the claims about him were sourced to his own website.

Even a "researcher" who brought in Surgisphere has himself been let go:

The University of Utah has “mutually agreed” to terminate the faculty appointment of Amit Patel, who was among the authors of two retracted papers on Covid-19 and who appears to have played a key role in involving a little-known company that has ignited a firestorm of controversy.

But again: The entire Twitter Smart Set fell for it.

Excuse me, but aren't allegedly "Smart" people supposed to be hard to dupe and swindle?

posted by Ace at 05:16 PM

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