Opinion: The hazards of medicine by tweet: the case of anti-cytokine therapy for Covid-19
Positive news about a potential Covid-19 treatment — a drug that blocks the receptor for the inflammatory protein interleukin-6 (IL-6) — highlight the hazards of sharing research findings via Twitter and other social media.
Researchers with the large REMAP-CAP clinical trial reported through a variety of channels, most notably Twitter, that the use of the IL-6 agonists tocilizumab or sarilumab significantly reduced deaths among critically ill patients with Covid-19.
