Ivermectin use surges despite no evidence it treats COVID-19. So why are people still taking it?
Feed supply stores can't keep veterinary Ivermectin on the shelves in Texas because Texans take it...
Russell Falcon, KXAN, and Nexstar Media Wire 20 hours ago
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The American Medical Association is calling for the "immediate end" to the use of the drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19, and it's asking doctors to stop prescribing it for that purpose.
The buzz around it surged again Wednesday after comedian and podcast giant Joe Rogan claimed he was using it to treat his own infection.
Ivermectin is used to treat parasites in animals, and sometimes humans, but it's not an anti-viral and, more importantly, it's not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for COVID-19 treatment. It can be taken topically or orally if prescribed by a doctor for its intended use, otherwise, potential side effects can be severe, including neurologic disorders, seizures, coma and even death.
"We have seen patients that have delayed their necessary and appropriate presentation to a hospital because they're taking this cocktail that has been sold and promoted to them as highly effective," said Dr. Mark Casanova, a Texas Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force member.
Casanova said not only does taking the drug for unauthorized uses pose risks for side effects, but it causes patients to have a false sense of security.
Casanova said side effects include nausea and vomiting.
"Ivermectin is designed to, both in livestock and in humans, to treat gastrointestinal stomach bugs; basically worms and other such parasites," Casanova explained. "So it stands to reason that it's really concentrating on things that are growing in the intestinal tract that don't belong."
Texas' state health department reports poison control centers already had more than triple the ivermectin exposure calls than they did all of last year.
Tom Schnorr, owner of Austin Compounding Pharmacy and pharmacist-in-charge, said he's been filling ivermectin prescriptions for months, though the decision goes against the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and now, the AMA.
Schnorr said the orders have spiked for about three weeks now, going from 70 prescriptions a day for ivermectin to 250 a day. That's nearly 2,500 patients so far this year, he said.
"And none of them have ever, have ever had a need to go to the hospital," Schnorr said, though he admits he doesn't have a system to check in with each patient.
Schnorr points to studies that have not yet been peer-reviewed or screened by other medical professionals.
"I get beat on by a lot of my fellows saying, 'Tom, there's no, you know, there's no double-blind, crossover, peer-reviewed studies.' There's about 64 well-thought-out reviews on the FLCCC.net website," he said.
Schnorr is not a doctor, but he offers "COVID-19 advice" to patients online. You can also download an ivermectin order form from his website. Schnorr said listed are suggested drugs to prevent and treat the virus.
At least two of the drugs listed, ivermectin and fluvoxamine, are not approved treatments for COVID-19.
He said he and his wife take ivermectin once a week, and he even recommends doctors prescribe it as a prevention for children who have returned to in-person learning.
Schnorr is vaccinated and says he has gotten COVID-19 twice. He says he was taking ivermectin when he caught the virus the second time but thinks it helped him recover quickly.
Medical experts and the CDC say there's next to zero data showing any benefits of taking the drug for COVID-19, but that's not stopping even doctors from prescribing it.
The Texas Medical Board told KXAN it doesn't ban any drug or treatment for physicians who may be prescribing ivermectin.
"The off-label use of drugs as an alternative therapy for COVID-19 patients is permissible," a spokesperson wrote in an email to KXAN.
They added that, as is the case with any alternative therapy, physicians have to provide full disclosure of treatment options, side effects and obtain informed consent.
The FDA reports that between early July and Aug. 13, over 88,000 prescriptions were dispensed in the U.S., but pre-pandemic, roughly 3,600 prescriptions were dispensed per year. That's in addition to the people buying doses at livestock stores and taking potentially dangerous amounts intended for large animals.
The CDC warns: "Ivermectin is not authorized or approved by FDA for prevention or treatment of COVID-19. The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel has also determined that there are currently insufficient data to recommend ivermectin for treatment of COVID-19."
Nevertheless, misleading information and false claims about ivermectin's effectiveness have proliferated across social media and among some right-wing news organizations.
Several notable conservative personalities have promoted the medication, including Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. Last week, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul claimed researchers' "hatred for former President Donald Trump" has kept them from studying ivermectin despite Trump only ever promoting the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, another drug not shown to be an effective COVID-19 treatment.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has also promoted ivermectin, prompting the suspension of his YouTube account for violation of Google's medical misinformation policies.
Misinformation/Disinformation
Studies on ivermectin as COVID-19 treatment do exist and some testify to the drug's efficacy. But right now, that data is overwhelmingly considered inconsistent, questionable and/or inconclusive. Medical experts say the data affirming ivermectin is minuscule compared to the amount indicating its uselessness.
A July review of 14 ivermectin studies concluded these studies were small and "few are considered high quality." The researchers say they're uncertain about the efficacy and safety of the drug and that "reliable evidence" doesn't support using ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment outside of well-designed randomized trials.
These are their reasons:
- Low numbers of participants in studies
- Imprecise or even skewed methods: some studies compared use of ivermectin to other unproven drugs like hydroxychloroquine. Comparisons were also made based on different criteria among the two drugs
- Some studies had different interpretations of the results
- The authors say that some studies were excluded from the review completely due to high risk of bias. They found about one-third of study results currently available were at a high risk of bias. Most results were ruled to have at least some concern about bias
- Narrow confidence intervals (CIs) in findings: meaning how much confidence there was in results falling within a certain range. While findings among these studies may indicate that ivermectin may be effective, the probability is slim.
Meanwhile, an oft-cited Australian study found ivermectin killed the virus, but several scientists have since explained humans most likely aren't capable of ingesting or processing the amounts of ivermectin used during the experiment.
Thirty-one other ivermectin studies are underway currently, while 18 others are awaiting review.
Earlier this month, Together Trial, a large-scale ivermectin clinical trial (which is not yet peer-reviewed) ended with the conclusion that the drug had "no effect whatsoever" on whether its 1,500 patients needed to go to emergency rooms or be hospitalized.
Other major health organizations advising against use of ivermectin for COVID-19 include the World Health Organization, European Medicines Agency, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the NIH. Additionally, pharmaceutical company Merck, a manufacturer of ivermectin, says there's "no meaningful evidence" to support its use in this way.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said last week: "Don't do it. There's no evidence whatsoever that it works and it could potentially have toxicity because people have taken ridiculous dosages and they wind up getting sick. There's no clinical evidence that indicates that this works."
National surge in usage
Nevertheless, ivermectin use goes on — and continues grabbing headlines because of it.
Usage has spiked so much that the FDA was forced to put out a warning weeks ago reading: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, ya'll. Stop it."
Dr. Matthew Payne told the Washington Post he's been meeting many patients in his Oklahoma hospital who distrusted the proven-effective COVID-19 vaccines but trusted ivermectin.
"There is surprise and shock when they initially get sick and have to come to the hospital," Payne said. "They'll say, 'I'm not sure why I feel so bad. I was taking the ivermectin,' and I will say, 'It doesn't do any good.'"
Due to an increase in search traffic for the drug, Amazon said it will block some autocomplete search responses for ivermectin, USA Today reports. While the retail giant will still autocomplete searches that begin with "iv" to "ivermectin for horses" and "ivermectin paste," it will instead redirect to a message advising against human usage of the drug for COVID-19 treatment.
Last week, a judge in Butler County, Ohio, ruled in favor of a woman who demanded the hospital treating her husband for COVID-19 give him ivermectin, the Ohio Capital Journal reports. Butler County Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital to give 51-year-old Jeffrey Smith 30 milligrams of ivermectin every day for the next three weeks.
In her lawsuit, Smith's wife, Julie Smith, claims she offered to sign documents releasing all other parties, doctors and the hospital from all liability related to the dosage. The hospital declined.
Smith says her husband, who has been on a ventilator for weeks, has a very slim chance of survival and that she's willing to try anything to keep him alive.
"The FLCCC"
Smith's lawsuit references the work of Dr. Fred A. Wagshul, who is a founding member of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, a group of doctors that are promoting the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment.
The FLCCC is behind the website covid19criticalcare.com, which purports to offer "prevention and treatment protocols for COVID-19." In addition to the use of ivermectin, which the FLCCC calls its "core" preventative measure, it has indicated that a person can gargle with mouthwash, take vitamins and administer nasal drops containing iodine.
Chief among the FLCCC's resources on ivermectin is a review published in the American Journal of Therapeutics. It's co-authored by one member of the alliance and relies to some degree (at least 15.5%, according to academic journal Nature) on a non-peer-reviewed preprint that was withdrawn due to "ethical concerns."
That paper allegedly studied a large sample size of COVID-19 symptomatic people and found that ivermectin significantly reduced symptoms and deaths. But academics and critics found issues related to plagiarism and data manipulation, Nature reports.
The FLCCC Alliance says "vaccination is part of the solution" for ending the COVID-19 pandemic, although vaccines are not listed in its preventative protocol plan. The group does say people should follow public health authority recommendations, including "vaccinations as appropriate."
The group's treatment protocol for hospitalized patients reads: "If administered early, this formula of FDA-approved, safe, inexpensive, and readily available drugs can eliminate the need for ICU beds and mechanical ventilators and return patients to health."
Nevertheless, the FDA has not approved ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment.
The FLCCC says its information is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment plans from a licensed medical professional.
The alliance lists a disclaimer on its website, reading: "IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY OF THE CONTENT OR MATERIALS ON OUR WEBSITE, OR ANY SERVICES OR INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH THE WEBSITE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE ACCESSING AND USING OUR WEBSITE."
"At the end of the day, do we want to take… de-wormer… to try to prevent something, or wear a mask that comes at a much lower cost and get a vaccine that's free?" said Casanova.
The CDC urges and reminds Americans that the currently available COVID-19 vaccines, including Pfizer (now fully FDA-approved), Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are safe and effective. Booster shots are currently underway and under discussion. While vaccines do not ensure you won't become infected with COVID-19, they have significant real-world data confirming they prevent severe illness and hospitalization.
Soon to be extinct.
Texas feed stores sold out of pig and horse wormer!
It isn't like more pigs and horses are getting worms...
Why are people still taking it? To own the libs of course! I feel so owned everything time I hear about another unvaccinated Trumpster dying a needless death.
To own the libs of course!
Why are people obsessviely posting seeds and the same memes over and over about it?
To "own the Cons"
Hoe many people have died from this?
How many have died from drug overdoses?
Why the obsession with this, including posting made up stories about it?
There is a hierarchy of questions here, but at the top the indisputable champion is “why are people still taking ivermectin?” If the antivax crowd wants to insist on taking an entirely ineffective and irrelevant drug to pretend they are protecting themselves from or treating themselves for covid, maybe they should try something a little more benign than livestock dewormer, bleach, and anti-malaria meds. They’d be better off promoting placebos.
Why are you pretending that there are not people taking ivermectin to deal with covid? The word ivermectin is all over the news because so many people on the right are fighting for it. In Ohio a judge just overturned a previous judicial ruling that a hospital must treat a patient with ivermectin if the patient wants it. Conservative talk show hosts are pushing it in their broadcasts. That’s not fake news.
The real truth is just too disturbing
I haven't, and for you to accuse me of that is ludicrous and offensive. What patients and their personal physicians discuss and decide is none of my business.
All of my comments about the seeded article are supported by facts. Good-bye.
There are certain individuals here on NT who advocate using Ivermectin for covid. Clearly, misinformation about it is being spread, mainly by the stupid who can't be bothered with real research or medical advice.
Nevermind that an RX is needed to take Ivermectin?
People don't just walk into the store and purchase it.
What patients and their personal physicians discuss and decide is none of my business.
Head in the sand. Meanwhile all the right wing news outlets are promoting ivermectin as if they are your personal physician.
People don't just walk into the store and purchase it.
Yes, they do. It’s available without prescription from livestock feed stores and idiots are using that as a workaround for doctors who are not willing to fall for the stupid right wing trend of promoting this drug as if it is somehow effective against covid. You know this.
I live in the ''Horse Capital of the World'' and there are many livestock/feed stores and it's readily available over the counter to anyone.
Nevermind that people are still getting and taking it too. As well as still spreading misinformation about it.
What some (?) on the left keep trying to say is everyone who takes Ivermectin gets it from feed stores, etc., and that is false. So silly.
It's also available from online pharmacies or less "reputable" sources.
Why would any reputable doctor prescribe this drug to treat covid when there isn’t a lick of evidence that it is an effective treatment? If your doctor is willing to do this you really should find a new doctor.
Sure is.
Morning Hal..nah they don't need to worry about going to the doctor's..
They could just find the nearest farm and line up in the paddock with the mob of sheep when they are drenching them...🐑🐑🐑
Ivermectin is a sheep drench here..they should look good when they are in the sheep run. They get flipped on their back and the dispenser is jammed down their throat..bet it tastes good too.
Can't believe people are so naive.
Some poster said that people were needlessly dying from Co-Vid and that the cure was, I think, hydrochlorquinolone (or whatever drug #45 was touting) and ZPac and zinc - as a treatment for Co-Vid.
?????????????????????????????????????????
Well, I don't feel owned. I feel smarter and wiser every time I hear about some dumb ass taking this drug meant for horses.
Do people understand what this stuff does? It works on parasites like hook, round, and tape worms. If the drug doesn't find those in your intestine it starts sloughing off the intestinal lining. Then you poop what looks like worms but it isn't. You are destroying your gastrointestinal tract.
By all means take it if you think you're "owning" me. But don't be hurt when I laugh at you*
*you here does not mean YOU, Hal.
I actually feel a bit better knowing that right wing fanatics are committing suicide out of ignorance and black hearted spite and hate of the other
That antivaxer right wingers were dying from Covid and denying it at the same time.
We are all in trouble with anthropogenic global warming and it will trouble us all
Considering one of the side effects is diarrhea, [Deleted.]
Side effects of infertility too.
bonus
That is a good thing. These people should never reproduce.
"Look at our healthy butts!"
People are taking it because they're stupid. Someone probably started the rumor that Ivermectin treats covid and others simply latch on to that rather than actually put any thought or research into the claim.
Someone?
Because they think it owns the libs.
Because they are stupid.
[ deleted ]
[ feel free to reprint in the appropriate article/seed ]
[ Rural Oklahoma Hospitals Overwhelmed By People Overdosing On Ivermectin | Daily Mail Online - Community | The NewsTalkers ]
Uh, the article talks about people using the product, not dying in the hospital.
Are you going to say that people using it is fake news?
this whole thread is trolling and unrelated to the seed
My links clearly prove that the seeded article from KFOR published a fake news story and Rolling Stone, MSNBC, etc ran with it before vetting the source. Why else would RS issue an "Update" aka correction AFTER their story was exposed as false?
Why would you think that I'd ever say that anyone using Ivermectin is fake news? It's very well known that people, under medical physician supervision, have successfully used Ivermectin since the 1970s. Anyone can find the data on well-respected medical websites like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, etc.
It still has nothing to do with this article...
Would you use it?
[ deleted ]
[ feel free to reprint in the appropriate article/seed ]
[ Rural Oklahoma Hospitals Overwhelmed By People Overdosing On Ivermectin | Daily Mail Online - Community | The NewsTalkers ]
Please don't be offended, but since I've never chosen you as one of my medical physicians, I will not share that information with you.
Translation: Hell to the no I wouldn't use it.
So a completely different story is compared to another one.
Is this one a lie?
So you are going to sound like you are promoting the product yet won't say if you would use it?
I suppose you wouldn't say if you have ever taken an aspirin...
Get real.
But it is being said that it has been used since the seventies...
And safely at that, yet won't say if personally used...
Since as far as I know doctors don't prescribe it, how would it be a medical decision....
Ivermectin is currently approved and regulated by the FDA for veterinary use only.
Human studies were done in Bangladesh in May and June of 2020. Scientists were comparing Ivermectin covid uses with those of Remdesivir, Trump's drug of choice. (I'm sure the fact that Donald Trump owned quite a bit of stock in Gilead Sciences, the maker and distributor of Remdesivir, had nothing to do with his constant public shout-outs of the drug.)
While both drugs demonstrated somewhat promising early results in vitro, and later on mice, the results were less promising when used on humans.
If I had to guess where all the hoopla was coming from, I would say follow the money. The largest shareholder in Valeant Pharmaceuticals, maker and distributor of Ivermectin, is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, Bill Ackerman. He and Jared Kushner use similar methods to bitch-slap a certain stock price right up the charts. Translation: A well-placed biased article could mean a new 30,000-square-foot summer home in Gstaad.
But what do I know?
source
source
source
Not true
Ivermectin | COVID-19 Treatment Gudelines (nih.gov)
Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19 | FDA
Not sure why people don't understand that there are two different formulas for Ivermectin. One for animal use and one for humans.
It is available for humans with a prescription.
It also decreases human male fertility, so I say go for it, damn the side effects and throw away the goulashes.
Ivermectin use in Ghana & the Congo is high to kill ringworm infestations that causes river blindness and truly
unbearable itching of the epidermis.
The first three days of treatment are the worst as the ringworm larvae that cause the itching are dying off and trying to
leave the host human...
That is why one should consult their own doctor. Human formula for Ivermectin medicine is only available with an RX.
but not for Covid -19 Only Trumpsters do that.
It does not reduce fertility. Stop spreading misinformation
Yet you can't get it at my preferred feed store without signing up to accept what ever the new price increase
will accompany future receipts of ivervectin paste or drench which has increased tenfold so far.
They don't want to speculate and lose on Ivermactin speculations...
Didn't read the link did you? Rated Least Biased by multiple fact checkers.
Still think the ND quarterback stopped a KKK riot with a few potatoes"
You appear to be very susceptible to legends
This quack doctor obviously has forgotten the most import statement in the oath he took to do no harm. He needs to be seriously looked into by the AMA.
1. Because the people are no smarter than sheep, and in fact emulate them. (Makes them easier to shear).
2. Because the education system fails to teach critical thinking, and in fact in many cases any kind of thinking, but being sheep the people are good at following.
Fools idiots and republicans.
If people can't understand basic biology and basic science at the high school level, they cannot grasp the difference between human prescriptions and just taking over the counter animal drugs. The formulas and dosages are a lot different.
Their dogs, pets and cattle get vaccinated and it's not "political".
But when the Republican base gets the opportunity to jump on any bandwagon that they think "owns the libs", then they jump on for a ride. Even if the ride they are taking is to die for the Republican cause of "owning the libs" by failing to be vaccinated, failing to wear masks and over burdening our hospital systems that are now at the point rationed care.
Excellently expressed.
You are so spot on with your comment. Well done.