Column: Ivermectin, another bogus COVID treatment, becomes a darling of conspiracy-mongers

submited by
Style Pass
2021-07-22 21:00:05

Amid all the confounding features of the COVID-19 pandemic, one stands out: We have vaccines of established efficacy against the disease which millions of Americans have shunned for partisan reasons, and nostrums of obvious ineffectiveness that millions of people prefer.

The quintessential model for the latter—a supposed COVID treatment promoted by prominent politicians and medical commentators that proved to be useless—is the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

That drug has pretty much fallen off the front pages, but it has been supplanted by another treatment claimed to be spectacularly effective despite an utter lack of scientific evidence.

Like the anti-malarial, ivermectin has been around for years as a known remedy for certain diseases. In hydroxychloroquine's case, it was effective against malaria and some auto-immune conditions such as lupus.

Ivermectin is commonly prescribed by veterinarians to deworm dogs, cats and farm livestock. It also has been prescribed for humans suffering from some parasitic infections.

Leave a Comment