MaryJo Perry raises animals on her property outside of Jackson, Miss., and uses ivermectin to treat her cattle. To her, the drug is as familiar, safe, cheap and effective as vitamins: “We’ve been using it on the farm for 40 years.”
Perry, who studied animal science and at one time wanted to be a vet, also uses it to treat mange in stray dogs she rescues near her home. It works without side effects, she says: “I’ve never seen issues with it.”
In humans, ivermectin fights parasitic infections from roundworm, lice and scabies; it’s effective against certain tropical diseases, and may have benefits in fighting malaria.
Its reputation as a miracle drug for animal and human disease began with its discovery in the 1970s. It has driven down cases of river blindness around the world. And scientists initially hoped it might treat COVID-19, too, prompting many people to embrace it, though dozens of studies later confirmed the drug is not an effective treatment.
Despite the disappointing research results, ivermectin took off during the pandemic, fueled by misinformation. Perry, speaking at a political event on medical freedom she organized in September, says she doesn’t believe the research finding it ineffective. “I believe that it prevents COVID; I know that firsthand,” she claims. “I’ve taken care of my family with it. Since I started taking it, I’ve not gotten it again.”
Ivermectin is now making a comeback, after its use receded in the waning years of the pandemic. Now, especially in conservative political circles, its reputation keeps growing as a kind of cure-all for various ailments, and even for cancer — despite a lack of evidence it works.
So far, five state legislatures — in Tennessee, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana and Texas — have voted to make the drug available over-the-counter, causing concern among doctors who say people might overuse or misuse it, or worse — substitute ivermectin for proven treatments.
[…]
Last month, Trump’s appointed head of the National Cancer Institute, Anthony Letai, said the agency was conducting preclinical studies on ivermectin’s ability to kill cancer cells — though doctors say it holds little promise. And Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis, a breast cancer survivor, touted it in announcing $60 million in cancer research funding, including use of ivermectin.
There’s currently no good evidence that ivermectin is an effective cancer treatment in humans.
“Most promising drugs in test tubes and mice don’t pan out in humans,” Mafi says. “That’s just a statistical reality.”
And there is already a lot of other cancer research and treatments in the form of targeted immunotherapies that are far more advanced and promising than ivermectin, he says.
Yet that hasn’t stopped it from taking off among patients influenced by disinformation.
See here for some background. Trump’s war on funding for cancer research probably won’t help with that, but at least you’ll be able to get ivermectin over the counter.
You should read the rest, there’s grifting and Joe Rogan and general COVID weirdness. I don’t have anything to add to the story, but I do have this to add to this post.
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office made “numerous inaccurate statements” in court filings and statements when it sided with a Houston doctor in her legal battle against the Texas Medical Board, state regulators said.
The medical board’s response came one week after Paxton’s office announced it would not defend the state agency in a lawsuit filed by Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, an ear, nose and throat specialist who has garnered national attention for her opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and support for using ivermectin, an anti-parasite medication, to treat the virus.
Paxton’s office accused the medical board of “acting on nothing more than personal animosity and spite” when it issued a public reprimand to Bowden over her treatment of a COVID-19 patient.
“I will not stand by as Dr. Bowden has her Constitutional rights trampled and ability to serve her patients impeded with an illegal reprimand,” Paxton said in a statement.
The Texas Medical Board said some of Paxton’s claims were erroneous, though a spokesman for the agency declined to specify which statements in the court filing were inaccurate.
“(The board) has provided ample justification for disciplining Dr. Bowden for attempting to treat a patient at a hospital in which she did not have privileges,” the board said in a statement last week. “(The board) intends to vigorously contest these claims and will stand firm to ensure hospitalized Texans receive care from doctors who are authorized to be on hospital premises.”
The medical board is still evaluating its options for legal representation in the case now that Paxton’s office is not defending the agency, the spokesman said.
Honestly, they’d be better off with a first-year law student. And may Ken Paxton be given nothing but ivermectin for every medical issue he may have for the rest of his life.