More Evidence for Effectiveness of Ivermectin Against COVID-19

The May-June 2021 issue of American Journal of Therapeutics has a meta-analysis of various experiments using ivermectin both as prophylaxis against and treatment for COVID-19. I’m starting to think ivermectin is effective. Not only that, it’s inexpensive and relatively non-toxic.

From the aforementioned article:

Background: 

After COVID-19 emerged on U.S shores, providers began reviewing the emerging basic science, translational, and clinical data to identify potentially effective treatment options. In addition, a multitude of both novel and repurposed therapeutic agents were used empirically and studied within clinical trials.

Areas of Uncertainty: 

The majority of trialed agents have failed to provide reproducible, definitive proof of efficacy in reducing the mortality of COVID-19 with the exception of corticosteroids in moderate to severe disease. Recently, evidence has emerged that the oral antiparasitic agent ivermectin exhibits numerous antiviral and anti-inflammatory mechanisms with trial results reporting significant outcome benefits. Given some have not passed peer review, several expert groups including Unitaid/World Health Organization have undertaken a systematic global effort to contact all active trial investigators to rapidly gather the data needed to grade and perform meta-analyses.

Data Sources: 

Data were sourced from published peer-reviewed studies, manuscripts posted to preprint servers, expert meta-analyses, and numerous epidemiological analyses of regions with ivermectin distribution campaigns.

Therapeutic Advances: 

A large majority of randomized and observational controlled trials of ivermectin are reporting repeated, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes. Numerous prophylaxis trials demonstrate that regular ivermectin use leads to large reductions in transmission. Multiple, large “natural experiments” occurred in regions that initiated “ivermectin distribution” campaigns followed by tight, reproducible, temporally associated decreases in case counts and case fatality rates compared with nearby regions without such campaigns.

Conclusions: 

Meta-analyses based on 18 randomized controlled treatment trials of ivermectin in COVID-19 have found large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance. Furthermore, results from numerous controlled prophylaxis trials report significantly reduced risks of contracting COVID-19 with the regular use of ivermectin. Finally, the many examples of ivermectin distribution campaigns leading to rapid population-wide decreases in morbidity and mortality indicate that an oral agent effective in all phases of COVID-19 has been identified.

Parker here again. My understanding of Emergency Use Authorization, which applies to all COVID vaccines used in the U.S. today, is that they are authorized only if there are no other proven effective treatments available. In which case, the Big Pharma vaccine manufacturers may want to suppress the study at hand.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: There is no consensus on the dose of ivermectin for the patients I see, i.e, those sick enough to be in the hospital. Single dose of 0.4 to 0.15 mg/kg? Subsequent dose seven days later “if needed”? I see multiple different dosing regimens in the article.