Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Not really, Regeneron and Monoclonal Antibody therapy are well established therapies now.

What IS the fascination with Invermectin? I really don't know.

But THIS is why people are getting fed up with the 'discussion'.

COVID-19 misinformation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin

This section is an excerpt from COVID-19 misinformation § Ivermectin.[edit]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the antiparasitic drug ivermectin became a cause célèbre for right-wing figures promoting it as a supposed COVID treatment. [77]

Misinformation about ivermectin's efficacy spread widely on social media, fueled by publications that have since been retracted,[78][79] misleading "meta-analysis" websites with substandard methods,[80][81] and conspiracy theories about efforts by governments and scientists to "suppress the evidence." [82][83][84]

In August 2021, the state of Mississippi announced that 70% of recent calls to poison control centers were due to people taking ivermectin in a dose formulated for large animals. State officials urged residents to get vaccinated, in a state where the vaccination rate was among the lowest in the country.[85]

Many studies on ivermectin for COVID-19 have serious methodological limitations, resulting in very low evidence certainty.[92][96][97] As a result, several organizations have publicly expressed that the evidence of effectiveness against COVID-19 is weak. In February 2021, Merck, the developer of the drug, issued a statement saying that there is no good evidence ivermectin is effective against COVID-19, and that attempting such use may be unsafe.[98][99]

The U.S. National Institutes of Health COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines state that the evidence for ivermectin is too limited to allow for a recommendation for or against its use.[100] In the United Kingdom, the national COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel determined that the evidence base and plausibility of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment were insufficient to pursue further investigations.[101]

Ivermectin is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in treating any viral illness and is not authorized for use to treat COVID-19 within the European Union.[100][102] After reviewing the evidence on ivermectin, the EMA said that "the available data do not support its use for COVID-19 outside well-designed clinical trials".[102]

The WHO also said that ivermectin should not be used to treat COVID-19 except in a clinical trial.[103] The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency, Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, and Brazilian Thoracic Society issued position statements advising against the use of ivermectin for prevention or treatment of early-stage COVID-19.[104][105][106]

Misinformation, lower degrees of trust, and a sense of despair over increasing case and death counts has led to an increase in ivermectin's use in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America,[107][108] and South Africa. A black market has also developed in many of these countries where official approval has not been granted.[109]

The viral social media misinformation about ivermectin has gained particular attention in South Africa where an anti-vaccination group called "South Africa Has A Right To Ivermectin" has been lobbying for the drug to be made available for prescription.[101] Another group, the "Ivermectin Interest Group" launched a court case against the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), and as a result a compassionate use exemption was granted. SAPHRA stated in April 2021 that "At present, there are no approved treatments for COVID-19 infections."[101]

Despite the absence of high-quality evidence to suggest any efficacy and advice to the contrary, some governments have allowed its off-label use for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Countries that have granted such official approval for ivermectin include the Czech Republic,[109] Slovakia,[109] Mexico,[110] Peru (later rescinded),[111][112], India[113][114] (later rescinded),[115] the Philippines,[116] and the Colombian city of Cali