Killing Covid-19: Ivermectin? By Brian Simpson

     I first saw reference to the drug ivermectin on a freedom site. But, let’s be different and go mainstream beginning with this university site, eh?
  https://www.monash.edu/discovery-institute/news-and-events/news/2020-articles/Lab-experiments-show-anti-parasitic-drug,-Ivermectin,-eliminates-SARS-CoV-2-in-cells-in-48-hours

•    “Do NOT self-medicate with Ivermectin and do NOT use Ivermectin intended for animals. Read the FDA caution online.
•    Whilst shown to be effective in the lab environment, Ivermectin cannot be used in humans for COVID-19 until further testing and clinical trials have been completed to establish the effectiveness of the drug at levels safe for human dosing.
•    For any medical questions you have about your health, please consult your health care provider.
•    The potential use of Ivermectin to combat COVID-19 remains unproven, and depends on pre-clinical testing and clinical trials to progress the work.
•    A Monash University-led study has shown that an anti-parasitic drug already available around the world can kill the virus within 48 hours in cell culture.
•    Scientists showed that a single dose of the drug, Ivermectin, could stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in cell culture.
•    The next steps are to determine the correct human dosage – ensuring the doses shown to effectively treat the virus in vitro are safe for humans.
•    The use of Ivermectin to combat COVID-19 depends on pre-clinical testing and clinical trials, with funding urgently required to progress the work.
•    Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug that has also been shown to be effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses including HIV, Dengue, Influenza and Zika virus.
•    This Monash University-led collaborative study was published in Antiviral Research, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Elsevier. Please see the study DOI here:

  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2020.104787

A collaborative study led by the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) with the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital, has shown that an anti-parasitic drug already available around the world kills the virus within 48 hours. The Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s Dr Kylie Wagstaff, who led the study, said the scientists showed that the drug, Ivermectin, stopped the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in cell culture within 48 hours. “We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it,” Dr Wagstaff said. Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug that has also been shown to be effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses including HIV, Dengue, Influenza and Zika virus. Dr Wagstaff cautioned that the tests conducted in the study were in vitro and that trials needed to be carried out in people. “Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective – that’s the next step,” Dr Wagstaff said.

     Oh, that has all the caveats that one would expect, and fair enough too. Ivermectin needs testing on humans, but these preliminary results are very hopeful, and in the best-case scenario, may beat a vaccine to the pinch, but that is not known yet.
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220302011

“Although several clinical trials are now underway to test possible therapies, the worldwide response to the COVID-19 outbreak has been largely limited to monitoring/containment. We report here that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic previously shown to have broad-spectrum anti-viral activity in vitro, is an inhibitor of the causative virus (SARS-CoV-2), with a single addition to Vero-hSLAM cells 2 h post infection with SARS-CoV-2 able to effect ~5000-fold reduction in viral RNA at 48 h. Ivermectin therefore warrants further investigation for possible benefits in humans.”

     Clearly, do not go out and self-medicate – always dangerous for people not knowing the full ramifications of medications. But, all the articles I could find thought that the drug had promise and needed human trials.
  https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-australia-sydney-doctor-claims-cheap-head-lice-drug-could-cure-covid19-and-should-be-used-now/news-story/24b930fcec5e4ef33127b13d4356b0aa

“A renowned Sydney doctor is urging health authorities to give vulnerable people infected with coronavirus a cheap and freely available drug that he believes is an effective “cure”. Frontline medical workers should also be given it preventively to lower risk and in light of the large number who have contracted COVID-19 in Victoria, he argues. Professor Thomas Borody, a gastroenterologist credited with developing a world-first cure for peptic ulcers, saving countless lives, has stepped up his advocacy for what he believes is the “answer to Australia’s COVID-19 crisis”. Taken together, Ivermectin – a treatment for head lice that costs as little as $2 – combined with zinc and the antibiotic Doxycycline, could be a “potential lifesaver right now”, Professor Borody said. “These three medications are already approved,” he said. “They do not need preclinical or clinical trials nor additional (Therapeutic Goods Administration) approvals unless the aim is to combine in a single capsule, for example. “Patient treatment programs have been done in the US and elsewhere which indicate it can work within four to six days.” A handful of South American countries have deployed Ivermectin as both a treatment and preventive measure after early laboratory research indicated it may eliminate COVID-19. Professor Borody believes the combination of three approved ‘off the shelf’ drugs could be a “cure”. But experts have cautioned that any declarations of a coronavirus cure or treatment should be “taken with a grain of salt” given trials for a number of theorised medicines are in their early stages. When asked about the drug’s potential in treating coronavirus, Dr Ian Musgrave, a molecular pharmacologist from the University of Adelaide, said: “Oh no, not Ivermectin.” “No, it‘s not a cure for COVID-19,” Dr Musgrave added. “It works in test-tube experiments, but is unlikely to work clinically as it is hard to achieve effective plasma concentrations. No clinical trials data are available yet and in the absence of any public data, claims of the high efficacy are to be taken with a grain of salt.”

     We will see, but since there are no patents for this drug, you can bet that there will be no enthusiasm from governments, servants of corporate capitalism, to develop anything that is cheap, and does not make Big Pharma richer.