Misleading: Ivermectin as COVID Cure
The Claim
Note: This claim was submitted to be fact-checked by one of our readers.
Ivermectin can successfully prevent and treat COVID-19.
News posted on
Emerging story
In early December, Dr. Pierre Kory appeared on Fox News to discuss the use of ivectermin as a COVID-19 suppressant.
The claim soon went viral on social media, with many claiming that lives could be saved by using the drug ivermectin to prevent and treat COVID-19.
Misbar’s Analysis
According to Misbar’s investigation, ivermectin is a drug that has been in use for more than 30 years for the treatment of parasitic infections in humans. It is also a commonly used drug to treat parasites in dogs and cats. Ivermectin has been shown to be relatively safe for humans across different doses with more than one million doses of the drug administered daily according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Some are suggesting that ivermectin should be used immediately in the U.S. for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in order to save lives.
Other countries have already begun using ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, especially in South America and Africa.
The research that is so far available on the effectiveness of ivermectin against COVID-19 is incomplete. There are approximately 38 clinical trials from different countries in different stages of completion according to the Journal of Diabetes Metabolic Syndrome. For example, one trial involved 116 patients and another studied 280 patients. While both studies showed promise that COVID-19 treated with ivermectin could lower mortality, the studies are far too small to make any sweeping conclusions.
As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has neither approved nor granted emergency use for ivermectin to be used to treat COVID-19, stating that additional testing is needed. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, while ivermectin has been shown to slow COVID-19 in cell cultures in a lab, achieving the concentrations necessary for ivermectin to work on COVID-19 would require doses up to 100-times higher than those approved for use in humans.
Repurposing an existing and well-known drug such as ivermectin may be possible in the very near future, but research does not yet support the safety and efficacy of the drug for COVID-19 treatment. While ivermectin has been used safely for decades, it does come with risks. According to Nature.com, although most people tolerate ivermectin well, it has been linked to tremors, convulsions, lethargy and disorientation. A 2018 analysis found cases of brain damage and coma in people with a genetic mutation that allows ivermectin to pass from the bloodstream into the brain.
