Studies claiming ivermectin can treat coronavirus have proved false and show how medical research needs an overhaul to prevent misinformation around quack cures, scientists say.
An international group of experts said widely shared studies praising the de-wormer drug as a miracle remedy have since proved to be deeply flawed and unreliable.
Ivermectin has become the poster-child drug of choice among anti-vax conspiracy theorists over the summer, particularly in the US.
Its rise in popularity resulted in health authorities pleading with people to not take the animal version of the de-wormer, which can have serious adverse side affects.
Ivermectin has become the drug of choice for many anti-vax conspiracy theorists in the US following the spread of now disputed research on social media. Some believers in the medication have resorted to taking the animal version of the drug, which is normally used to treat creatures like horses and cows with internal parasites. While the drug is safe for human consumption, doses made for horses are too large for humans and could cause overdoses
In a letter in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers outline how doubts have now risen about studies claiming ivermectin could help treat Covid.
They detail how one such piece had concerning discrepancies in its data, which led to its eventual withdrawal.
Another piece of research they identified had elements in its methodology which seemed flawed but its authors did not responded to further requests for information.
These errors were then compounded by larger reviews, called meta-analyses, which based their findings in large part on these flawed studies.
Health authorities in the US, such as the Food and Drug Administration have pleaded for people to not take ivermectin unless diagnosed to do by a doctor and to especially avoid taking versions of the drug designed for animals. Now a group of scientists is calling for changes to how Covid research is conducted and published to try and avoid similar falsehoods spreading in the future
What US health authorities want people to know about ivermectin The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals. Ivermectin is approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. Clinical trials assessing ivermectin tablets for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in people are ongoing.Taking large doses of ivermectin is dangerous.If your health care provider writes you an ivermectin prescription, fill it through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed.Never use medications intended for animals on yourself or other people. Animal ivermectin products are very different from those approved for humans. Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous.
Source: FDA
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One of these meta-analysis on the effectiveness of ivermectin, which used both the aforementioned pieces of research, has now been retracted to be reanalysed.
The scientists add that this study is not alone and predict others claiming ivermectin has a clinical benefit will also be withdrawn in the coming months due to their ‘impossible numbers’, and ‘unexplainable mismatches’ in the data.
However, the damage has already been done with many hundreds of thousands of patients since dosed with the de-wormer, principal signatory of the letter Kyle Sheldrick of the University of New South Wales in Australia wrote.
‘This research has created undue confidence in the use of ivermectin as a prophylactic or treatment for Covid, has usurped other research agendas, and probably resulted in inappropriate treatment or substandard care of patients,’ they wrote.
As a result, the scientists called for an overhaul of how clinical data on Covid is analysed.
They said creators of meta-analyses should both both request and review the individual patient data, the raw from individual participants in a study or trial, of the studies they use to reach their wider conclusions.
Similarly, the scientists said clinical trials on Covid treatment should also make this data available to ensure this kind of analysis could happen.
Any study that refuses to do so should be treated with extreme caution or omitted from analysis entirely, the scientists said.
They acknowledge their call may be controversial because it represents a change to a ‘long-accepted’ scientific practice but added that the ivermectin example justifies it.
‘We believe that what has happened in the case of ivermectin justifies our proposal: a poorly scrutinized evidence base supported the administration of millions of doses of a potentially ineffective drug globally,’ they said.
‘Yet when this evidence was subjected to a very basic numerical scrutiny it collapsed in a matter of weeks,’ they wrote.
Top ivermectin expert says the drug does not treat COVID-19
Dr. Timothy Geary, one of the world’s foremost experts of Ivermectin, says the drug does not have any effectiveness fighting viruses.
Geary, who is the Research Chair in Parasite Biotechnology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, says that the 2020 study which spawned much of the Ivermectin-craze is not being correctly read.
Dr Timothy Geary (pictured) is one of the top experts on ivermectin and has researched the drug for over a decade
He told DailyMail.com that the study did show that Ivermectin could inhibit the replication of COVID-19 virus cells, which is what many are reading from the study that makes them believe the drug has virus killing properties.
Geary explained, though, that the concentration of the drug used in the study were so high that it could not be used for treatment in a human, and would likely cause an overdose.
‘In that study they showed that in cell cultures, Ivermectin could inhibit [Covid] replication, but the concentrations required for that effect were in a range called the micromolar range – very high concentrations relative to what you would find in the plasma of a treated person or an animal, which would be 20 to 50 times lower.’
He does not see too much harm in people using the drug in human-sized doses, though, as Geary assures that it is safe for consumption.
It is safe to use in doses of around 200 micrograms, and even people who are using it to incorrectly treat Covid are unlikely to suffer any major symptoms.
‘There’s no significant toxicity from those doses,’ Geary says.
He also mentioned that the drug has been used billions of times in between humans and animals, and has never shown any ability to combat viruses outside of the laboratory.
The typical Ivermectin prescribed by doctors com in pill form in small doses
But many Americans are facing problems with Ivermectin because they are not using the versions of the drug prescribed by doctors.
Instead, many are finding their own over-the-counter solutions, most notably going to local feed stores and buying medicine meant for horses, cows and sheep.
Prescribed versions of the drug come in pill form, while these versions are liquid.
The dosages are also much larger, meant for an animal that can weigh over 1,000 pounds, not a person that can weight less than one-fifth of that.
Taking doses too large can cause a person to have nausea, body pains, diarrhea limb swelling and other serious side effects.
In more serious cases, a person could overdose and suffer severe damage to their central nervous system, and potentially even die.
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