Australian infectious disease researchers have raised the alarm about fake data in a study published in The Lancet denouncing the drug hydroxychloroquine in the treatment Covid-19. The Australian Department of Health has been stockpiling millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine.

The Lancetstudy prompted the World Health Organization to halt global trials on the drug even though it has been considered to be safe for decades already.

Dr Allen Cheng, an epidemiologist and infectious disease in Melbourne, toldGuardian Australiahe has never heard of Surgisphere, and no one from his hospital, The Alfred, had provided Surgisphere with data forThe Lancet. “If they got this wrong, what else could be wrong?” Cheng warned. Another “red flag” for Cheng is that the paper listed only four authors.

He demanded that the Australian hospitals allegedly involved in the study be named.

The study, led by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center…