Ivermectin

I must confess to having avoided taking much interest in Ivermectin as a treatment and prophylactic for Covid-19. My reasoning was that paying attention to drug treatments only lent more credibility to the belief that Covid-19 was a dangerous pathogen. However, with the push to vaccinate, the effectiveness of Ivermectin becomes an important issue. If the drug's effectiveness can be confirmed, then the emergency use of the vaccines cannot be justified because there is an alternative therapy. This would cost the vaccine makers billions of dollars and so it's no surprise that calls to utilise this drug in the treatment of the virus have fallen on deaf ears. The major medical journals refuse to publish studies on the positive effects of Ivermectin but will happily publish publish studies that fail to confirm its effectiveness. Health authorities remain silent and social media actively removes any references to the drug's benefits.

This of course is not surprising. However, it was interesting to learn of this drugs history and its long time use in the treatment of parasitical diseases in both animals and humans. This February 2011 academic paper titled Ivermectin, ‘Wonder drug’ from Japan: the human use perspective is quite informative. Here is the abstract:

Discovered in the late-1970s, the pioneering drug ivermectin, a dihydro derivative of avermectin—originating solely from a single microorganism isolated at the Kitasato Intitute, Tokyo, Japan from Japanese soil—has had an immeasurably beneficial impact in improving the lives and welfare of billions of people throughout the world. Originally introduced as a veterinary drug, it kills a wide range of internal and external parasites in commercial livestock and companion animals. It was quickly discovered to be ideal in combating two of the world’s most devastating and disfiguring diseases which have plagued the world’s poor throughout the tropics for centuries. It is now being used free-of-charge as the sole tool in campaigns to eliminate both diseases globally. It has also been used to successfully overcome several other human diseases and new uses for it are continually being found. This paper looks in depth at the events surrounding ivermectin’s passage from being a huge success in Animal Health into its widespread use in humans, a development which has led many to describe it as a “wonder” drug.

For the pharmaceutical industry, such a wonder drug is not welcome in the treatment of Covid-19 even though the industry had been instrumental is rolling it out as a treatment for parasitical diseases. The effectiveness of Invermectin in the treatment of Covid-19 was first discovered in 2020 in third world countries with limited health resources. When doctors in these countries tried to communicate their findings to the rest of the world, global health authorities and Big Pharma quickly took notice because the drug threatened to derail their plans for a vaccine rollout of unprecedented proportions. Ivermectin needed to demonised and quickly. 

In this article on the Covid Blog we read:

There are currently at least 93 studies, with 54 being peer-reviewed (as of May 15, 2021), showing that Ivermectin is highly effective in treating COVID-19 in early stages and as prophylaxis (preventative measure). View the data and studies here. Also watch Congressional testimony from Dr. Pierre Kory about Ivermectin.

The video on the site is well worth watching as we watch poor Dr. Kory vainly plead his case for the acceptance of Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19. 

Another video featuring Dr. Tess Lawrie is quite powerful in conveying the extent of the obstruction surrounding Ivermectin's acceptance. Figure 1 shows the safety profile for Ivermectin. Here is some information about the doctor who is interviewed in it:

Figure 1

Dr. Tess Lawrie is a Medical Doctor as well as a Researcher from Bath, UK. She is funder and Head of a Company that does Evidence Synthesis on Medical Research to establish the evidence for Regulatory Guidelines to be issued for Treatment options. Her Company has been working for the World Health Organisation as well as the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Early in 2021 Dr. Lawrie ran a Systematic Review on the Evidence of Ivermectin as Treatment for Covid-19 - and found the Data was strongly suggesting Ivermectin is both safe and effective.

This interview covers details on Ivermectin, it's track record as an essential medicine of the WHO with more than 3,5 billion doses administered to patients all across the world, how Ivermectin compares to other well-known drugs in terms of adverse events registered, and about censorship in Science as well as n Social Media of information of life-saving medications.

More on Dr. Lawrie and the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group: https://bird-group.org

Dr. Lawrie blames Big Pharma and its pursuit of profit as the main reason for the rejection of Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19.