COVID Misinformation Is Causing a Run on Ivermectin

[Peter Fairbrother]

On 30/09/2021 19:15, jim bell wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 30, 2021 at 11:01 AM, professor rat
> <pro2rat at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/09/covid-misinformation-ivermectin-shortage 
> <https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/09/covid-misinformation-ivermectin-shortage>
> 
> If you’re not a consumer of conservative media and/or the audio 
> offerings of conspiracy theorists, where the likes of Tucker Carlson, 
> Joe Rogan, and Alex Jones have been pushing the drug as a miracle cure
> 
> 
> 
> I don't know how much of a 'miracle' it is, but see this:
> 
> https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34145166/ 
> <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34145166/>
> 
> *"Conclusions: *Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions 
> in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early 
> in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. 
> The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to 
> have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally."
> 
> It sounds worth using.
> Don't forget Famotidine (Pepcid), some others.
> 
> Doesn't sound like 'misinformation'.

It is. It's a meta-analysis of previous meta-analyses, using disturbing 
methods.

I have no idea whether ivermectin helps in Covid. I do think it does not 
significantly prevent death in established cases, see below, but it 
might have term-lessening or prophylactic effects.

I do know crap science when I see it though, and this is.


Here's my meta-analysis, for what it's worth (not much):

There have been 5 reported completed dbrct's (double-blind randomised 
control trials) of ivermectin in Covid with death as outcome. They 
involved a total of 2,732 patients, exactly half of whom received some 
kind of treatment with ivermectin.

33 untreated control patients died. 22 treated patients died. This might 
suggest ivermectin helps a little against death.

However in the the bigger, better run trials (>100 per cohort) 25 
untreated control patients died and 22 treated patients died - a 
statistically insignificant difference.


Personally I take vitamin C and D and zinc as possible Covid 
prophylaxes. I do not claim they work, though low levels of vitamin D do 
seem to make Covid worse and zinc and vit C have well-known if mild 
general antiviral properties.

I might take ivermectin on the Hail-Mary it-does-no-harm principle if it 
was readily available, but probably not.

Peter Fairbrother