> On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 12:45:36PM +0100, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
>> On 16/09/2020 21:59, jim bell wrote:
>>> Also, search 'covid ivermectin'
>>
>> Doesn't seem to work, or at least not very well. Promoted by many of the same
>> people who promoted chloroquine, incidentally.
>
>
> Why do you say that "[ivermectin] doesn't seem to work, or at least not very well" ??

>It is far easier to investigate drugs in cell cultures than in whole
humans, so researchers try many drugs in cell cultures to see if they work.

Yes, this is an article from a month ago confirming what you say:   

Also, one of the early methods to decide which drugs to try involved a method of comparing the physical structure of thousands of drugs to various places on a virus (or a cell) which might inhibit it.   This technique is potentially quite useful, because it identifies likely (existing) drugs that could have promise.  

>That doesn't mean they will work in humans (or not work in humans, you
can miss potential treatments too), but it is fairly easy to do and
gives some hints about what may work.

>You can also try a lot more different drugs in cultures than you could
try in humans.

>Ivermectin has been shown to inhibit COVID replication in cell culture.
It is very effective at doing this. But only at levels which are too
high for use in humans.