evidence: No, former WHO scientist doesn’t face death penalty for advising against using ivermectin for COVID-19 [...] 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. [...] 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.