Ivermectin Update
It’s hard to believe that my first blog entry on ivermectin was less than three months ago; it feels like much longer because quite a lot has transpired in the interim. Most of the recent developments have been commendable but there have been a few disturbing developments. Let’s start with the positive.
The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) has a well-established website that deals exclusively with COVID-19- https://covid19criticalcare.com/. They are dedicated to exploring treatments and prophylaxis of the disease. FLCCC alliance, which comprises credible physicians and scientists, was founded by Paul Marik who has published more than 700 papers. Among their accomplishments is an excellent summary of the information regarding drug prevent and treatment of COVID-19; see https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FLCCC-Ivermectin-in-the-prophylaxis-and-treatment-of-COVID-19.pdf. This paper has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Therapeutics. Herein they describe their best estimates for using ivermectin and other drugs in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 (their table 4).
Two groups from the UK have conducted meta-analyses of the date regarding ivermectin for COVID-19; one is led by Tess Lawrie and the other by Andrew Hill; as of today neither of these have been peer-reviewed and published. The British Ivermectin Recommendation Development panel has made their manuscript available to the public and has sent it to many governments around the world. It can be found at https://b3d2650e-e929-4448-a527-4eeb59304c7f.filesusr.com/ugd/593c4f_1324461135c749dab73ed7c71e47d316.pdf
Lawrie concludes that “ivermectin substantially reduces the risk of a person dying from COVID-19 by ... 65% to 92%” and it may reduce “COVID-19 infections, probably somewhere in the region of 88%.” “Placebo-controlled trials of ivermectin treatment among people with COVID-19 infection are no longer ethical and active placebo-controlled trials should be closed.” I haven’t seen a manuscript from Dr. Andrew Hill’s group but there are video presentations of their work available such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYW9LV6AK7w. I understand that the Hill group has sent their findings to the World Health Organization (WHO), and look forward to seeing how WHO handles knowledge about ivermectin.
Disturbing Developments. In my opinion there is some willful blindness on the part of some of our public health and political leaders, and also perhaps some journals. For example the FLCCC review was initially submitted to Frontiers in Pharmacology where it was provisionally accepted and posted in abstract form then rejected at the last minute. It is now in press at the American Journal of Therapeutics. Interestingly, Tess Lawrie’s team at the Evidence-Based Medical Consultancy has also had interesting experiences with journal editors- see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2FWPQm6sxw.
References:
There is a regularly updated list of papers dealing with ivermectin in the context of COVID-19 at https://c19ivermectin.com/
This figure below shows that one’s chances of contracting the SARS CoV-2 virus are reduced by 89% while using ivermectin.
Forest Plots Summarizing the Effect of Ivermectin in Early Treatment and Prophylaxis of COVID-19
