Why not try ivermectin on cases where people are on ventilators and going downhill rapidly to an obvious death with nothing to lose. I'd be first in line if I were in that position.
That's the way it has been tested and it doesn't work when things are already headed South. It's too late for that type treatment.
Early on, it may have some efficacy. Waiting until Covid patients are on vents in the ICU isn't the time to do a study of Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine. And seems to me that's what has happened, just to "prove" that these treatments don't work. Of course they don't work in that scenario.
A better way to look at it is to study large populations like in Africa where HCQ is widely used for malaria and in South America where Ivermectin is widely used to treat parasites. Study those populations, take that data and statistically compare it to populations where these meds are not being used. You don't see much of that. They had to show that these vaccines were the ONLY solution in order to get the emergency designation for usage. Disingenuous exclusion of certain data that doesn't fit the narrative, IMO. What else is new.
DF
Actually there is are many cases now where ivermectin was used as a last ditch effort in an ICU setting and saved patients lives. Some of these cases have been pretty high profile where the families of the patients had to go to court to get a judge to order the doctors to prescribe ivermectin.
I’d say its highest and best use is earlier in the disease process.
It’s the intense inflammatory reaction, not so much the virus that kills. It’s the cytokine storm that’s so bad. Autopsy slides of Covid lung show an inflammatory picture, not so much a viral one. So, if ivermectin is effective blocking the virus from attaching to the ACE 2 sites on the cell, I’d think it’s effectiveness against overwhelming runaway inflammation may not be its ideal application.
DF
Ivermectin is a strong anti-inflammatory agent as well. Ive read where some have had success treating inflammatory disease like RA with it
Having anti-inflammatory properties is one thing.
Handling runaway inflammation as in a cytokine storm is another thing altogether. Once that process is well underway, the patient is all too often, "circling the drain" so to speak. Once in ICU on a vent, the stats aren't that good. You gotta attack the problem before it gets to that point.
The old advice, go home, take Tylenol and when you're sick enough, come to the hospital. IMO, that's where HCQ and Ivermectin may have had a role and when they should have been recommended. Then, testing those two once the patient is in ICU to "prove" they don't work is suspect, IMO. No treatment during a critical window of opportunity doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But, I'm not a politician.
DF
