evidence: In June 2024, Instagram posts appeared claiming that WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan faces the death penalty in India for advising against using ivermectin for COVID-19 (see examples here and here). Swaminathan is a pediatrician and researcher who served as the World Health Organization’s chief scientist from 2019 to 2022. [...] While India’s initial guidance for treating mild COVID-19 did include ivermectin—albeit with the caveat of a "low certainty of evidence"—the Indian Council of Medical Research revised that guidance in September 2021, dropping ivermectin after studies showed that the drug had little to no effect on COVID-19. This is in line with evidence-based guidance provided by the WHO and the European Medicines Agency, as well as professional scientific groups like the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In summary, the claim that former WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan faces the death penalty in India for advising against ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment is baseless. It originates from a legal notice issued by a private association of lawyers that itself cited flawed sources to support its promotion of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. Reliable clinical studies have found that ivermectin provides little to no benefit for COVID-19.