WHAT DO STUDIES REVEAL ABOUT IVERMECTIN AND COVID-19?
Misconceptions about the drug’s coronavirus healing abilities began to spread when a handful of studies found positive trends in patients after taking the drug, particularly
one non-peer reviewed paper that said ivermectin can lower COVID-19 death rates by more than 90%.
That study has since been withdrawn from the research website following reports of
plagiarism and data manipulation that “are now under formal investigation.”
Separate
research published in June last year found that ivermectin reduced the amount of coronavirus in a laboratory dish by 5,000-fold after two days. Some studies showed the drug helped COVID-19 patients recover faster and reduced inflammation, while others showed no benefits or worsening of disease.
But “most of these studies had
incomplete information and significant methodological limitations, which make it difficult to exclude common causes of bias,” according to the NIH, including small sample sizes, inconsistencies in the reporting of disease severity and conflicting data as patients received multiple medications at once.
“The way that [ivermectin] works is it actually paralyses the worm by attacking the nerve and muscle cells,” Speights told KAIT8. “COVID is [caused by] a virus. COVID doesn’t have nerve or muscle cells, so the mechanism in which the drug works wouldn’t work for a virus.”
A WHO group of experts analyzed 16 randomized controlled trials including a total of 2,407 inpatients and outpatients with COVID-19 and concluded that evidence of the drug’s ability to improve disease outcomes is of “
very low certainty.” The group didn’t look into whether ivermectin can prevent COVID-19.
“We have a hospital with
dozens and dozens of patients that have taken ivermectin that is in with COVID pneumonia. I see this every day,” Dr. Robin Trotman, an infectious disease specialist in Missouri, told FOX2now. “We have things that work. The [monoclonal antibodies] clearly work, if you’re in the hospital steroids clearly work. But this one, I wish it worked, but the evidence is pretty clear.”