Ivermectin frenzy: the advocates, anti-vaxxers and telehealth companies driving demand - The Guardian

Touting the drug as a “miracle cure” for Covid-19, these groups have rapidly risen to prominence, finding a fervent audience among conservative media figures, the vaccine-hesitant and people desperate to treat loved ones suffering from the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), put out advisories in August warning against using ivermectin for Covid-19.

Still, medical advocacy groups and anti-vaccine activists have heavily promoted ivermectin online and in the media as the key to ending the pandemic and have shared lists of doctors and companies that will offer it – sometimes directing those interested to dubious medical providers.

The hype has caused runs on pharmacies, with reports of people resorting to eating versions of the drug intended for horses when they can’t get their hands on its formulation for humans.

A review of existing studies into the drug from an international organization that reviews medical research found a lack of reliable evidence to support the drug’s use for treatment or prevention of Covid-19 outside of clinical trials and criticized the quality of studies that do exist on ivermectin.

Two of the most prominent groups backing ivermectin as a Covid-19 treatment are the UK-based British Ivermectin Recommendation Development (Bird) and the US-based Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC).

Its members published analyses promoting the drug, and the group started a now-defunct GoFundMe to “help us get life-saving drug approved for Covid-19”.

But other doctors have cautioned the groups have relied on weak data, ignored studies that show ivermectin is not effective and made numerous misleading claims in their push for the drug – such as FLCCC tweeting last month that “this could all be over by the end of August” and one founding member comparing restrictions on ivermectin to genocide.

Bird founder Tess Lawrie told the Guardian that Bird is a crowd-funded initiative aimed at getting ivermectin approved for Covid-19, and that it stands by its claims that the drug could end the pandemic in weeks if used for prevention and treatment.

(Rogan, who has previously expressed hesitancy to vaccines, announced in September he had contracted Covid-19. He claimed to be taking ivermectin among several other treatments.)!

As interest in ivermectin spread, opinions on the drug became subsumed into a broader culture war.

As ivermectin turned into a conservative rallying point, some groups began to take advantage of its new audience.

As advocacy groups and conservative media promoted ivermectin in recent months, their message has found an eager audience online.

In pro-ivermectin Facebook groups, members have promoted the drug’s use, condemned its opponents and discussed taking legal action against doctors who won’t administer it.

Facebook has stated that it will enforce violations of its policies on Covid-19 information and vaccines, which includes prohibiting claims that ivermectin is a guaranteed cure or ads for the drug.

“We don’t allow ads promoting ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19.”.

Poison control centers in multiple states have received a spike in calls from people taking ivermectin not intended for human consumption, including Mississippi reporting last month that at least 2% of its recent calls were due to the drug.

(The FLCCC has, for its part, put out statements directing people not to take the version of ivermectin intended for livestock, but blamed health authorities for the confusion.).

An earlier version said that 70% of calls to poison centers in Mississippi concerned ivermectin