STOP THE PRESSES!
I know this will come as a complete shock to most of you. It was certainly an
Earth-shattering revelation for me.
Are you sitting down? Comfy?
Relaxed?
All shovels and rakes and implements of destruction well
beyond easy reach?
Ok.
Here it is:
In a trial of nearly 1,400 COVID-19 patients, those who received the antiparasitic drug ivermectin didn't fare better than those who received a placebo, The Wall Street Journal reported March 18.
It's the largest trial yet to evaluate the drug's effect on the coronavirus. The findings are awaiting publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal and are set to be presented March 18 at a forum sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Edward Mills, PhD, one of the study's lead researchers, told the Journal.
"There was no indication that ivermectin was clinically useful," Dr. Mills said. He is a professor of health sciences at Canada's McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
I mean, this is big, right??
I mean, who could have possibly known that ivermectin didn't work against Covid-19?
But here's the thing. At the end of February, Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano proposed legislation using this as a justification:
Despite a record of success in other parts of the world, it is increasingly difficult for a patient in Pennsylvania to obtain early treatment off-label drugs such as.. Ivermectin following prescription from a provider.
SB 1091 will allow physicians and pharmacists to prescribe and dispense drugs already approved by the FDA for off-label use in the treatment or prevention of COVID, without penalty from licensing boards. The bill will also clarify that a pharmacy may not decline to fill a prescription of a COVID early treatment drug based solely on their opinion of the drug.
First off there is no "record of success" anywhere regarding the treatment of Covid-19 with ivermectin.
If there were indications that it was "clinically useful" in one section of the world that data would've impacted the study done by Dr Mills in Canada.
Secondly, there's this:
The American Medical Association (AMA), American Pharmacists Association (APhA), and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) strongly oppose the ordering, prescribing, or dispensing of ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19 outside of a clinical trial. [Emphasis in original.]
Look back at Doug's justification. Specifically:
The bill will also clarify that a pharmacy may not decline to fill a prescription of a COVID early treatment drug based solely on their opinion of the drug.
But what if it's based on, you know, science?
For clarification, these are not opinions from the AMA, the APhA or the ASHP:
Will State Senator (and insurrection-adjacent) Doug Mastriano be correcting the public record soon?The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA have issued advisories indicating that ivermectin is not authorized or approved for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. The National Institutes of Health, World Health Organization, and Merck (the manufacturer of the drug) all state there is insufficient evidence to support the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19. The Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines on the Treatment and Management of Patients with COVID-19 also recommend against the use of ivermectin outside of a clinical trial.
Use of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 has been demonstrated to be harmful to patients.