Dr. Flávio Cadegiani, a founding member of a prominent anti-vaccine, pro-ivermectin doctors’ group called Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), is under indictment in Brazil. 

NICK SAWYER, MD; nicksawyermd@nolicensefordisinformation.org; @NickSawyerMD 
    Sawyer is an emergency medicine physician and the executive director of No License for Disinformation, a grassroots coalition seeking accountability for doctors who spread pandemic- and vaccine-related disinformation. 

Sawyer told the Institute for Public Accuracy that Cadegiani is a “primary source of the fraudulent scientific research that [major anti-vaccine doctors’ groups around the world] use as ‘evidence’ of ivermectin’s efficacy in the treatment of Covid-19. His studies have been thoroughly debunked by experts,” including Dr. Gavin Yamey, a global health researcher and director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health at Duke University. 

Yet FLCCC has nevertheless remained popular within anti-vaccine social media circles in the U.S. and abroad during the course of the pandemic. 

In 2021, scientists brought attention to a preprint on which Cadegiani was the main author. In the preprint, the authors claim that an experimental drug called proxalutamide reduced deaths in hospitalized Covid-19 patients by 77 percent––but multiple experts were “wary” of the results. Proxalutamide was defended by President Jair Bolsonaro as a Covid-19 treatment. But the study grew in notoriety, and the article was later retracted. 

Cadegiani was subject to a search and seizure by Brazilian authorities late last month for his role in the proxalutamide study. He has since been indicted for a crime against humanity for performing human research without proper oversight.