Morning Jolt: Horse De-wormer won Nobel Prize

[Newman]

In 2015:

Nobel Goes to Pioneers of Natural-Based Medicines

Three scientists who discovered natural-based remedies against parasites that cause malaria and river blindness won the Nobel Prize of Medicine on Monday.

The compounds – called artemisinin and ivermectin – are used by millions of people around the world and have saved countless lives. Ivermectin –which now is used to fight pests from bed bugs and lice to serious diseases such as lymphatic filariasis – was derived from naturally occurring bacteria in soil.

The winners -- from Japan, China and the United States -- worked separately to find medicines that were synthesized into powerful and effective drugs.

“These two discoveries have provided humankind with powerful new means to combat these debilitating diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people annually. The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable,” the Nobel committee said.

Frankly, calling it a "horse de-wormer" is misleading to the point of being a lie.

RedState

[Newman]

Two utterly fascinating facts about COVID
Andrea Widburg.

Mortality is very low, and ivermectin works. She includes a handy chart, citing PJ Media as the source:

232118_5_.jpg

Now, since I'm just above the cut-off, I'm left with some uncertainty, but not much.

As for ivermectin, she lists some haughty "horse de-wormer" tweets, mentions the Nobel Prize, and writes,

Now, back to Dr. Ioannidis’s point that early intervention can help save even more lives. Right now, the medical establishment is doing the equivalent of a doctor who, when he concludes you are in the early stages of a sinus infection, sends you home without any antibiotics and, instead, tells you to return when you’re septic. When it comes to COVID, we’re all told to go home and get back to the doctor when we’re on the verge of dying and interventional medicines will no longer work. Meanwhile, almost the entire American establishment (Democrats, doctors, Hollywood stars) hectors everyone to get vaccinated.

The bias against early intervention is so strong that the same people lecturing people about vaccines are also assuring them that Ivermectin, which has been touted as a possible treatment, is in fact an incredibly dangerous horse de-worming medicine. . . .

So the takeaway is that you’re statistically unlikely to die if you get COVID and that you can decrease even those chances by convincing your doctor that Ivermectin is not only not a horse medicine but, in the right doses, so wonderful that it won a Nobel Prize.

So I'm left to wonder what is going with the AMA:

Covid-19: AMA Joins Other Organizations Opposing Use of Ivermectin

The American Medical Association (AMA), in a joint statement with the American Pharmacists Associations (APhA) and American Society of Health Pharmacists, stated that the organizations “strongly oppose the ordering, prescribing, or dispensing of ivermectin to prevent or treat Covid-19 outside of a clinical trial.”

“We are alarmed by reports that outpatient prescribing for and dispensing of ivermectin have increased 24-fold since before the pandemic and increased exponentially over the past few months,” the organizations wrote.

Articles and commentaries about ivermectin for treatment of Covid-19 disease has been promoted on social media, and Joe Rogan, a comedian whose podcast is listened to by millions, announced that he had Covid-19 and was using the drug to treat his illness.

The AMA’s announcement noted that other organizations, including the drug’s manufacturer, have also advised people not to use the drug in this manner.

“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA have issued advisories indicating that ivermectin is not authorized or approved for the prevention or treatment of Covid-19. The National Institutes of Health, World Health Organization, and Merck (the manufacturer of the drug) all state there is insufficient evidence to support the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19. The Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines on the Treatment and Management of Patients with Covid-19 also recommend against the use of ivermectin outside of a clinical trial,” they wrote. The AMA said that using ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of Covid-19 has been shown to be harmful and noted that there has been a five-fold increase in calls to poison control centers from people taking ivermectin compared with pre-Covid numbers.

[Billy Jingo]

I agree that calling ivermectin “horse de-wormer” is a bit silly. It’s not just for horses. I gave my dogs their monthly dose last night.

[80zephyr]

Two utterly fascinating facts about COVID
Andrea Widburg.

Mortality is very low, and ivermectin works. She includes a handy chart, citing PJ Media as the source:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3657[/ATTACH]

Now, since I'm just above the cut-off, I'm left with some uncertainty, but not much.

As for ivermectin, she lists some haughty "horse de-wormer" tweets, mentions the Nobel Prize, and writes,

So I'm left to wonder what is going with the AMA:

Covid-19: AMA Joins Other Organizations Opposing Use of Ivermectin

These organizations want clinical trails first, I would suppose. I would hope that those trials are going on right now.

Mark

[Newman]

These organizations want clinical trails first, I would suppose. I would hope that those trials are going on right now.

Mark

I guess I’m more cynical. Pressure is coming from somewhere, for some reason, to block the use of ivermectin. It seems similar to me to the blocking of hydroxychloroquine (sp?) last year.

Last year the fear & dread was laid on Trump, and included fear of the vaccine itself. This year it’s just nonsense slander and snotty mockery, but it works. People I shared lunch with Friday were convinced ivermectin would probably kill them.

[Billy Jingo]

It can kill you.

[Newman]

It can kill you.

So can most things.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

In 2015:

Nobel Goes to Pioneers of Natural-Based Medicines

Frankly, calling it a "horse de-wormer" is misleading to the point of being a lie.

RedState

Ivermectin is the active ingredient in your dog's heartworm preventative.

It has been used safely and effectively for years, and has basically eliminated an entire class of premature death in pets.

I can't believe people are so ignorant. The fact that it's used in animal care does not make it automatically inappropriate (nor automatically appropriate) for humans. But it's not some mystery compound about which we know nothing.

ETA: I, too, would like to see some trials. I'm not convinced an anti-parasitic is good treatment for a virus. Medicines tend to be specific. You don't prescribe an anti-fungal medication for a bacterial infection, or antibiotics for a viral infection.

OTOH, a human taking a horse-sized dose of anything is a fucking fool. Self-prescribing by lay people is generally stupid. Back in the 70s there was a horse anti-inflammatory that was dirt cheap and many times more effective than anything you could get for humans. Most horse people used it when they had a bad sprain. BUT, they calculated the dose per pound; they didn't take as much as we gave our 1000-pound horses.

[Billy Jingo]

Ivermectin is the active ingredient in your dog's heartworm preventative.

It has been used safely and effectively for years, and has basically eliminated an entire class of premature death in pets.

I can't believe people are so ignorant. The fact that it's used in animal care does not make it automatically inappropriate (nor automatically appropriate) for humans. But it's not some mystery compound about which we know nothing.

I don’t think people fill their prescriptions at feed stores.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Your point?

[Newman]

The article about the Nobel award focuses primarily on ivermectin (and a sister compound) used in humans. In effect I think the application to animals is the “off label” use.

[scott]

I don’t think people fill their prescriptions at feed stores.

Since it's all the liberal media talks about, how many people do you think are actually taking Ivermectin bought at feed stores?

Millions?

Hundreds?

[80zephyr]

Billy posted:

I don’t think people fill their prescriptions at feed stores.

From the link:

"Of the(poison cennter) calls, 75% were from people who bought ivermectin from a feed store or farm supply store and treated themselves with the animal product," Webb said. The other 25% were people who had a prescription, she added.

Mark

[Frostbit]

Newman posts - The article about the Nobel award focuses primarily on ivermectin (and a sister compound) used in humans. In effect I think the application to animals is the “off label” use.

We were sitting at the dinner table in a remote camp in Zimbabwe. Halfway through dinner the PH noted he had forgotten to take his worming medicine before we headed out. Joyce and I looked at him and asked, "Is there something we should know?"

It turns out that it's routine practice in most African countries to worm the entire family, including pets, every six months, symptoms present or not. Those at the table were shocked we didn't.

I came home with Malaria treatment meds and ivermectin obtained for a few bucks at a local pharmacy equivalent in Harare. Still have it, never needed it.

[Newman]

We were sitting at the dinner table in a remote camp in Zimbabwe. Halfway through dinner the PH noted he had forgotten to take his worming medicine before we headed out. Joyce and I looked at him and asked, "Is there something we should know?"

It turns out that it's routine practice in most African countries to worm the entire family, including pets, every six months, symptoms present or not. Those at the table were shocked we didn't.

I came home with Malaria treatment meds and ivermectin obtained for a few bucks at a local pharmacy equivalent in Harare. Still have it, never needed it.

I have a hunch that's key, but not the whole story. Same with Hydroxy.