Clinical Trials Find No Increase in Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients Treated with Remdesivir, Contrary to Viral Claim

Remdesivir is the only antiviral medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19. But a retired chiropractor misleadingly claims on a viral clip on social media that the drug is “killing people.” Studies have shown that remdesivir can lead to faster recovery times for hospitalized patients.

Clinical Trials Find No Increase in Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients Treated with Remdesivir, Contrary to Viral Claim SciCHECKsquare_4-e1430162915812

Clinical Trials Find No Increase in Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients Treated with Remdesivir, Contrary to Viral Claim SciCHECKsquare_4-e1430162915812

Doug Mastriano — a Republican state senator in Pennsylvania who chartered buses to the Jan. 6 rally and has been subpoenaed by the committee investigating the riot that followed — hosted a panel on March 4 billed as a “Discussion on COVID-19 and Medical Freedom.”

A clip from that panel has spread widely on partisan social media accounts, showing up on platforms that cater to conservative audiences, such as Rumble, GETTR and BitChute, as well as mainstream platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Twitter.

The clip features Bryan Ardis, a retired chiropractor who sells purported acne treatments online and hosts a show that frequently makes dubious claims about the pandemic. He used his appearance at Mastriano’s forum to spread a claim that he’s made before.

Referring to the only antiviral drug that has, so far, been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for COVID-19 patients, Ardis said, “remdesivir is killing people… remdesivir is proven to kill lives.”

The only support that Ardis offered for his claim, though, was a reference to data he said he’d received from Thomas Renz — a lawyer who was also on Mastriano’s panel. That data, he said, showed that among “Medicare-aged” patients in New York hospitals who received a five-day course of remdesivir, “26.9% of them died.”

We asked Ardis by email for a copy of that data and for evidence that the drug had caused those deaths, but we didn’t hear back.

Remdesivir was first approved in October 2020 for use in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. As we’ve explained before, randomized, controlled clinical trials found that the drug led to faster recovery times and statistically significant odds of improving conditions among hospitalized patients with mild to severe COVID-19 as compared with those who received a placebo plus standard care.

.https://www.factcheck.org/2022/04/scicheck-clinical-trials-find-no-increase-in-mortality-among-covid-19-patients-treated-with-remdesivir-contrary-to-viral-claim/

Clinical Trials Find No Increase in Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients Treated with Remdesivir, Contrary to Viral Claim

Clinical Trials Find No Increase in Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients Treated with Remdesivir, Contrary to Viral Claim

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