Coronavirus, ivermectin

With “growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with COVID-19”, media outlets in the US, the UK, and Australia have commented, with CNN reporting that “The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday said that people should not use ivermectin to attempt to treat or prevent Covid-19.” Source. The BBC reported on YouTube’s removing videos for “Covid misinformation”, including a video where “a Brazilian doctor recommended hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, and the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as treatments against Covid-19”, further stating that “their efficacy in treating the virus is unproven”. Source. Australia’s ABC News reports on the “insufficient evidence to support the safe and effective use of ivermectin… for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19”. Source.

In India, as reported by The Indian Express, “the Uttar Pradesh government has claimed that it was the first state to have introduced a large-scale “prophylactic and therapeutic” use of Ivermectin and added that the drug helped the state to maintain a lower fatality and positivity rate as compared to other states… a team at Agra, led by Dr Anshul Pareek, administered Ivermectin to all RRT team members in the district on an experimental basis. It was observed that none of them developed Covid-19 despite being in daily contact with patients who had tested positive for the virus… Despite being the state with the largest population base and a high population density, we have maintained a relatively low positivity rate and cases per million of population”. Source. In Malaysia the New Straits Times states that “There are already reportedly many countries and regions around the world implementing successful preventative and Covid-19 treatment programmes with Ivermectin. Among the notables are Peru, Paraguay, large regions of India, and Macedonia… the list of countries that use Ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of the virus has grown to include the Czech Republic, Bolivia, Honduras, Slovakia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, among others”. Source. 

Okay then.