Does ivermectin work against covid-19?
5:06
(CNN) -
Oklahoma stores are struggling to stock ivermectin, a drug used to deworm large animals. In Mississippi, 70% of recent calls to the state poison control center are due to ingestion of ivermectin formulations intended for animals and purchased from livestock supply centers. Calls to the Alabama poison control center related to ivermectin have doubled lately.
Why, they wonder, are people taking a drug intended for horses and cows? Because some irresponsible Republican officials and conservative media have spent months promoting ivermectin as an effective treatment for COVID-19.
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who seems to have never known a conspiracy theory that he was unwilling to embrace, has been at the forefront of promoting ivermectin as an effective treatment for the virus.
Right-wing media promoted ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, to treat COVID-19.
FDA says it's not safe for humans
At the end of 2020, he held a hearing, as chairman of the Committee on National Security and Government Affairs, in which not one, but two doctors participated who defended the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
And Johnson has continued to promote the drug in the months since.
In June, he was suspended from YouTube for a week after posting statements made to the Milwaukee Press Club promoting ivermectin as well as hydroxychloroquine.
(In response, Johnson said that "YouTube's continued censorship of covid shows that they have amassed too much irresponsible power.")
Even last week, Johnson was promoting ivermectin through his official Senate Twitter account, praising a doctor who supports the use of the drug for its "courage and compassion."
Fox News' Laura Ingraham has worked to amplify Johnson's claims about ivermectin.
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(Note: Neither Johnson nor Ingraham are trained physicians or scientists. I know this is surprising).
As Aaron Blake of The Washington Post has ably documented, Ingraham has been stressing the efficacy of ivermectin since at least the end of 2020, when he had a doctor on his show praising hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for being "very successful. and very safe in most parts of the world. "
By February, Ingraham was saying things like "you have hydroxychloroquine, which of course became political and totally maligned, ivermectin, vitamin D, zinc, good to take."
In March he insisted that ivermectin was being "used around the world to reduce hospitalizations and deaths from covid."
What doctors say about ivermectin, an untested drug against covid-19 whose use has exploded in Latin America
Now, there are ivermectin formulas approved for human use in the United States, but they are intended for intestinal parasites and conditions such as lice and rosacea.
The problem with all this?
The study on which Johnson, Ingraham and the rest of the supporters of ivermectin base their conclusions that it is effective against COVID-19 has been retracted.
As Nature noted earlier this month:
"Throughout the pandemic, the antiparasitic drug ivermectin has attracted a lot of attention, particularly in Latin America, as a potential way to treat COVID-19. However, scientists say that recent surprising revelations of widespread data flaws from a pre-printed study reporting that medication greatly reduced COVID-19 deaths, reduced the promise of ivermectin, and highlighted the challenges of investigating drug efficacy during a pandemic. . ".
"... The document summarized the results of a clinical trial that appeared to show that ivermectin can reduce death rates from COVID-19 by more than 90%, one of the largest studies on the drug's ability to treat COVID -19 to date But on July 14, after Internet detectives raised concerns about plagiarism and data manipulation, preprint server Research Square withdrew the article on "ethical grounds."
So yes.
Another major problem is that many of the people who are currently getting ivermectin are not even getting the human-made version.
Animal versions can be very concentrated and dangerous for humans.
So on Saturday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) upon seeing the reports on the use of ivermectin, felt the need to tweet this: "You are not a horse. No you're a cow. Seriously. Enough. "
You are not a horse.
You are not a cow.
Seriously, y'all.
Stop it.
https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4
- US FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021
The tweet linked to an article on the FDA website titled: "Why You Shouldn't Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent Covid-19." (Johnson, for his part, tried to clarify Tuesday that he had never advocated for people taking ivermectin intended for animals. "I have advocated early treatment for covid, never a veterinary grade drug," he tweeted Tuesday night. "Any suggestion to the contrary is a grotesque lie," he asserted).
What is truly surprising about the growing number of people willing to ingest a drug intended primarily for animals is that many of these same people refuse to get any of the three covid-19 vaccines.
These vaccines have been licensed for emergency use, and now the Pfizer vaccine has full FDA approval.
All three vaccines have produced minimal side effects in the 171 million Americans who are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Pfizer vaccine full approval, what you need to know 5:25
Vaccines are very effective in preventing severe illness and death from COVID-19, including from the delta variant.
Vaccines are not intended for horses or cows.
Much like the publicity boost hydroxychloroquine received, fostered largely by then-President Donald Trump in 2020, there seems to be a segment of Americans looking for any way to avoid listening to the medical community when it comes to the best ways to avoid contracting covid-19 and treating it if it becomes infected.
Taking over the elites by taking a horse pill instead of getting vaccinated is really a telling comment on just how blind partisanship has taken hold of Trump's conservatives.
Revealing ... and terrifying.
ivermectin
