Ivermectin COVID-19 Treatment Controversy
For up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 coronavirus, including prevention and treatment, please visit CDC.gov.
Overview
Ivermectin is a medication used to fight parasite infestations in both animals and humans. In August 2021, the FDA officially advised against using ivermectin as a way to treat COVID-19 after a growing number of reports that people were using ivermectin drugs intended for livestock when they could not obtain prescriptions despite scientific evidence for its effectiveness against the coronavirus in humans being experimental. These reports led to a series of memes in late August, which were used to troll online communities that had been dedicated to ivermectin.
Background
Ivermectin is on the WHO's list of essential medicines as a way to treat parasitic worms. According to a 2020 article in Trends in Parasitology[1] by Martin et.al., ivermectin works because it kills invertebrates without having the same effect on mammals unless the dose is too large.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some early studies suggested ivermectin as a possible treatment for the virus, though further trials have led the WHO[2] to call these results "inconclusive" and advise against using ivermectin to treat COVID-19, which could be dangerous in humans at the needed dosage levels.[7] Beginning in 2020, people who opposed taking the COVID-19 vaccines began to recommend and seek out ivermectin as an alternative way to treat the disease.[3]
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Development
On August 26th, 2021, the CDC[4] issued an official warning against using any ivermectin drugs, especially ones not made for humans, to treat COVID-19. According to the warning, many people who wanted to use ivermectin but could not find a prescription would use over-the-counter ivermectin drugs made for livestock as an alternative. As of July 2021, poison control centers across the U.S. had received five times as many reports of ivermectin overdoses than before the pandemic.
/r/ivermectin Subreddit Trolling
Beginning the weekend of August 24th, 2021, Reddit users began targeting the subreddit /r/ivermectin,[5] which had been created on April 3rd, 2020, by people who supported the use of the medication to treat COVID-19. They flooded the subreddit with both official medical sources and memes.[6]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Trends in Parasitology – Ivermectin: An Anthelmintic, an Insecticide, and Much More
[2] WHO – WHO advises that ivermectin only be used to treat COVID-19 within clinical trials
[3] Time – How 'America's Frontline Doctors' Sold Access to Bogus COVID-19 Treatments--and Left Patients in the Lurch
[4] CDC – Rapid Increase in Ivermectin Prescriptions and Reports of Severe
Illness Associated with Use of Products Containing Ivermectin to
Prevent or Treat COVID-19
[5] Reddit – ivermectin
[6] Twitter – oneunderscore_
[7] NCBI – Ivermectin and COVID-19: A report in Antiviral Research
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