Farm Supply Stores Are Running Short on a Horse Dewormer/Pseudoscience COVID Cure - Slate

[Rhiannon12866]

“The hardship comes when you run to your farm supply store and they don’t have [ivermectin] on the shelves anymore because of all of this.”

Folks who are skeptical of masks and vaccines but still believe in COVID have turned to a variety of pseudoscience tools since the start of the pandemic, including bleach, UV rays, and … livestock dewormer. The latter, the antiparasitic ivermectin, is lauded by some as a panacea to a pandemic that has killed upward of 4 million people around the globe—and you can find it at your nearest farm supply store.

In humans, ivermectin is used to treat parasitic worms, scabies, and extreme cases of lice. It first became touted as a COVID cure in April 2020 after Australian researchers published a study claiming the antiparasitic could kill the coronavirus within 48 hours when used in large doses in laboratory settings. (Pharma giant and ivermectin manufacturer Merck later warned that the studies promoting ivermectin as a cure for COVID had a “concerning lack of safety data.”) Now that the delta variant is causing COVID rates in the U.S. to rise astronomically yet again, more people are again looking to the drug as a cure. But the evidence often cited by its proponents comes from questionable studies—one of the largest studies in support of the drug as a COVID treatment was recently withdrawn over ethical concerns, and a review of other studies by the medical research organization Cochrane concluded against the use of ivermectin.

Nevertheless, ever since it became popular as a supposed cure-all for COVID, it’s become harder for “COVID truthers” to file the prescriptions from shady online doctors at pharmacies after pharmacists began to crack down on what they saw as a potentially problematic increase in ivermectin requests, often in too-large doses and from difficult-to-reach doctors.

So, people have been turning to the animal versions available at farm stores instead: a paste for horses, a “drench” for sheep, and injectables for pigs and cows. Facebook groups and Telegram chats have also popped up, filled with people giving questionable advice on dosage, side effects, and best practices for the antiparasitic. On an Amazon comments section for an apple-flavored horse paste, one commenter spewed false equivalencies about viruses and parasites before writing, “Flavor is bearable but then I am not a horse.” Another commenter who has been using it as “preventative medicine” claimed that ivermectin was medicine that a nebulous “they” were trying to keep secret. And yet another wrote that they bought it for “the you know what.” (Update, Aug. 10, 2021: Amazon tells Slate in a statement, “The reviews referenced violate our policy and have been removed. We want Amazon customers to shop with confidence knowing that the reviews they read are authentic and relevant. We have clear policies for both reviewers and selling partners that prohibit abuse of our community features.”)

This is all despite the fact that animal ivermectin is not safe for humans. At all. In fact, there’s even been an increase in calls to poison control centers from people who overdosed on the animal drug, which can be deadly if used improperly. The Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization both have explicit guidelines against the use of the drug for COVID purposes. “While there are approved uses for ivermectin in people and animals, it is not approved for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19,” the FDA wrote in a blog post answering frequently asked ivermectin questions. “People should never take animal drugs, as the FDA has only evaluated their safety and effectiveness in the particular species for which they are labeled. Using these products in humans could cause serious harm.”


More: https://slate.com/technology/2021/08/ivermectin-covid-cure-farm-supply-stores.html

Link to tweet

[roamer65]

1. It is what it is.

Whenever I think I have seen the dumbest behaviors out of humans, they prove me wrong.

They get dumber.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Because the UV enema wasn't good enough.

[struggle4progress]

3. I hear eating tide pods with brycreem works pretty good too

[Sneederbunk]

4. We'll be hearing from horse people and worm people.

[SergeStorms]

5. These morons will eat this crap....

with only anonymous sources telling them it's a "cure", but they wont listen to the most renowned epidemiologists in the world who tell them to get the vaccine.

These people are fucking crazy!

[LisaL]

6. Tell me about it.

It does nothing to treat covid and could lead to serious side effects. But they will take it, while refusing to vaccinate, because they are supposedly so concerned about vaccine's side effects.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. "We won't get vaxed....Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to the farm store for animal medicine."

I have seen this drug promoted on the RWNJ sites.

Link to tweet

[brewens]

7. Numerous FG followers reporting dramatic health improvement after using it.

I can only speculate it is because many actually had worms.

[Ocelot II]

8. If drinking bleach doesn't work, I guess the next step is sheep dip, right?

It's really too bad nobody has been able to come up with an effective vaccine....

[tanyev]

9. "The vaccine's not fully approved by the FDA! Two bottles of horse dewormer, please."

[Mariana]

10. So, it's not enough that these fuckers hurt other people

by spreading Covid around, and by clogging up the hospitals when they get sick so others can't get needed care. No, they have to hurt helpless animals, too.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. Major study of Ivermectin, the anti-vaccine crowd's latest COVID drug, finds 'no effect whatsoever'

The RWNJ sites are really pushing this quack cure. This medicine is for horse deworming

Link to tweet

Ivermectin, the latest supposed treatment for COVID-19 being touted by anti-vaccination groups, had “no effect whatsoever” on the disease, according to a large patient study.

That’s the conclusion of the Together Trial, which has subjected several purported nonvaccine treatments for COVID-19 to carefully designed clinical testing. The trial is supervised by McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and conducted in Brazil.....

Among the 1,500 patients in the study, he said, Ivermectin showed “no effect whatsoever” on the trial’s outcome goals — whether patients required extended observation in the emergency room or hospitalization.

“In our specific trial,” he said, “we do not see the treatment benefit that a lot of the advocates believe should have been” seen.....

The findings on Ivermectin are yet another blow for advocates promoting the drug as a magic bullet against COVID-19. Ivermectin was developed as a treatment for parasitical diseases, mostly for veterinarians, though it’s also used against some human parasites.

[Rhiannon12866]

15. And this is back in the news again today!

[PJMcK]

13. 'Cuz Agway knows better than Dr. Fauci

ETA: The folks who work at our local Agway all wear masks and they have some kind of social distancing in place. No disrespect intended for Agway or its employees. My snark is directed at the idiots who would ingest a horse medication but are convinced that the inoculations are dangerous.

[spanone]

14. and the shelf is bare....goddamn idiots.

[UTUSN]

16. Waiting to hear what their side effects are!

[Rhiannon12866]

18. I think side effects are the least of their worries:

Americans poisoning themselves with horse de-worming drug to treat COVID-19

Many people are obtaining the drug from their vets and using horse-sized doses on themselves, said the president of the American Association of Poison Control Centers

In yet another harebrained attempt to safeguard against the pandemic, Americans are now turning to a horse medication to treat and prevent COVID-19 and are poisoning themselves in the process.

The drug, ivermectin, is an anti-parasite paste used to de-worm horses. It can also be used to eliminate lice, scabies and worms in dogs, cats and other mammals.

Humans can tolerate the medication in small quantities, experts say, but many are ingesting quantities meant for animals, which can be severely poisonous.

The news parallels a similar movement last year where Americans took to ingesting bleach in the hopes of killing any residing COVID-19 germs.

[snip]

According to the Missouri Poison Center, serious overdoses of ivermectin can result in seizures, coma, lung issues, and heart problems. Smaller doses could include side effects such as nausea, rashes and an increased heart rate.

The Missouri Poison Center has seen an uptick of 40 to 50 more calls a day than they received before the pandemic, some of which are related to the use of ivermeticin.


More: https://nationalpost.com/news/americans-poisoning-themselves-with-horse-de-worming-drug-to-treat-covid-19

[Lemon Lyman]

17. Wait...

So Hydroxychloroquine doesn't work anymore?

[Rhiannon12866]

19. Or bleach??

Household bleach has to be easier to come by...