In early 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Malone was involved in research into the heartburn medicine
famotidine (Pepcid) as a
potential COVID-19 treatment following anecdotal evidence suggesting that it may have been associated with higher COVID-19 survival. Malone, then with Alchem Laboratories, suspected famotidine may target an enzyme that the virus (
SARS-CoV-2) uses to reproduce, and recruited a computational chemist to help design a 3D-model of the enzyme based on the viral sequence and comparisons to the
2003 SARS virus.
[25][26] After encouraging preliminary results, Alchem Laboratories, in conjunction with New York's
Northwell Health, initiated a clinical trial on famotidine and
hydroxychloroquine.
[25] Malone resigned from Alchem shortly after the trial began and Northwell paused the trial due to a shortage of hospitalized patients.
[24][27]
Malone received criticism for propagating
COVID-19 misinformation, including making unsupported claims about the toxicity of
spike proteins generated by some
COVID-19 vaccines;
[2][16][4][28] using interviews on mass media to popularize medication with
ivermectin;
[29] and
tweeting a study by others questioning vaccine safety that was later retracted.
[2] He said that
LinkedIn temporarily suspended his account over a post stating that the Chairman of the
Thomson Reuters Foundation was also a board member at
Pfizer, and other posts questioning the efficacy of some COVID-19 vaccines.
[30][31] Malone has also claimed that the
Pfizer–BioNTech and
Moderna COVID-19 vaccines could worsen COVID-19 infections.
[1]
With another researcher, Malone successfully proposed to the publishers of
Frontiers in Pharmacology a special issue featuring early observational studies on existing medication used in the treatment of COVID-19, for which they recruited other guest editors, contributors, and reviewers. The journal rejected two of the papers selected: one on
famotidine co-authored by Malone and another submitted by physician
Pierre Kory on the use of
ivermectin.
[27] The publisher rejected the ivermectin paper due to what it stated were "a series of strong, unsupported claims" which they determined did "not offer an objective nor balanced scientific contribution."
[27] Malone and most other guest editors resigned in protest in April 2021, and the special issue has been pulled from the journal's website.
[27]
Malone has also been criticized for falsely claiming that the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine in August 2021.
[32]
On December 29, 2021,
Twitter permanently suspended Malone from its platform, citing "repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy".
[33]
