Reuters botches article on ivermectin and omicron

A Japanese company did not find that ivermectin was “effective” against the omicron variant in a clinical trial, as Reuters originally reported on Monday, reports Erik Wemple of The Washington Post.

Wemple writes, “Reuters says it hustled to set the record straight: ‘The original Reuters story misstated that ivermectin was ‘effective’ against Omicron in Phase III clinical trials, which are conducted in humans. We corrected this to clarify it had an ‘antiviral effect’ against Omicron and it was shown in joint nonclinical research. After being made aware of the error, we corrected our story immediately.’

“The Erik Wemple Blog asked Reuters about the newsworthiness of the story in its corrected incarnation. ‘We misinterpreted the Kowa announcement and corrected our story promptly to accurately reflect what the company said with the appropriate context,’ responded a Reuters spokesperson.

“We don’t doubt Reuters’s diligence in correcting itself; we doubt only how effective it’ll be. The mistaken report, after all, landed in a country where poison control centers last year were beset by an increase in ivermectin overdose calls — the byproduct of one strain of covid hype/misinformation.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.