The Hazards of Medicine by Tweet: the Case of Anti-Cytokine Therapy for Covid-19

February 12, 2021

(STAT News) – 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. In response to what should have been good news, some experts essentially shrugged it off on social media, partially because several earlier studies had yielded disappointing results.