• In the Australian experiment, first reported in April, ivermectin prompted a 5,000-fold reduction in COVID-19 viruses in a petri dish, essentially killing all particles.  
• One Bangladesh study found that 100 ivermectin-treated patients “tested negative and their symptoms improved within 72 hours.” Another retrospective review of 248 patients there, found that 115 who received ivermectin were far less likely to need oxygen or intensive care, or to die from COVID-19. 
• In the Dominican Republic, a large medical system treated 1,300 COVID patients with ivermectin and azithromycin, and declared 99 percent cured. 
• In Egypt, ivermectin played a “highly significant role” in protecting 203 family members of COVID patients; just 7 percent of treated people became infected with the virus compared to nearly 60 percent who were not treated.

Swedish authorities actively discouraged people from wearing face masks, which they said would spread panic, are often worn the wrong way, and can provide a false sense of safety. Some doctors who insisted on wearing a mask at work have been reprimanded or even fired.

Until last month, Sweden’s official policy stated people without obvious symptoms are very unlikely to spread the virus. So instead of being quarantined or asked to stay home, family members, colleagues, and classmates of confirmed cases had to attend school and show up for work, unless they had symptoms themselves. Testing in Sweden still lags behind many other countries, and in many districts infected people are expected to notify their own contacts—in contrast to, say, Germany and Norway, where small armies of contact tracers help track down people who may have been exposed.

The group’s criticism has not been welcomed—indeed, some of the critics say they have been pilloried or reprimanded. “It has been so, so surreal,” says Nele Brusselaers, a member of the Vetenskapsforum and a clinical epidemiologist at the prestigious Karolinska Institute (KI). It is strange, she says, to face backlash “even though we are saying just what researchers internationally are saying. It’s like it’s a different universe.”