Blinded by fear.
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Sometimes in life the simple solutions and answers are just staring you in the face.
Researchers at Oxford University are planning the first, large high-quality trial of a cheap drug that has been credited with dramatically reducing Covid-19 deaths in the developing world.
The Principle trial is hunting for treatments that could be used at home soon after symptoms appear. The aim is to find a medicine that makes an impact during the earliest stages of disease, preventing severe illness.
The next batch of medicines it will assess will include ivermectin. Used for decades to treat livestock and people infested with parasitic worms, it has been hailed as a Covid “wonder drug” by supporters. However, many other scientists say that it is yet to be properly evaluated.
Chris Butler, professor of primary care at the University of Oxford and a co-chief of the Principle trial, said: “It has potential antiviral properties and anti-inflammatory properties and there have been quite a few smaller trials conducted in low and middle- income countries, showing that it speeds recovery, reduces inflammation and reduces hospitalisation…
“But there’s a gap in the data. There’s not been a really rigorous trial.”
It has been shown to block the entry of viral protein into the nuclei of cells, which means that it might reduce the replication of the virus in its host.
An analysis of several small trials commissioned for the World Health Organisation recently suggested an encouraging effect.
“It could save thousands of lives a day,” Paul Marik, of the Eastern Virginia Medical School, one of ivermectin’s most vocal champions, said. “The data is compelling: across Mexico, India and South America, mortality has fallen.”
At present, however, the drug is approved in the UK only as a topical agent for skin infection and inflammation.
Peter Horby, the Oxford University professor who helped to set up the UK’s largest Covid-19 clinical trials, said earlier this month that the latest data was “interesting, perhaps encouraging, but not yet convincing”.
The big breakthroughs in coronavirus treatments so far have involved drugs for patients who are already severely ill. These treatments have dampened down overactive immune responses.
Professor Butler and his team are searching for medicines that work earlier, including treatments that prevent the virus replicating and gaining a foothold in its host.
They are recruiting people over the age of 65, or those over 50 with underlying health conditions, through GPs, online, and through the Test and Trace system.
The trial is also set to test favipiravir, an antiviral medication used to treat flu in Japan, though some experts fear that it will reach people too late. “They’re allowing a recruitment window 14 days from the onset of symptoms, but the virus peaks on day three — and it’s too late to use an antiviral after the peak of virus replication,” Penny Ward, visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London, said.
“And if you don’t intervene very rapidly with an antiviral, you will have a failed trial — even though the drug itself might in fact have been effective if given correctly. If they do get the skates on and get patients into those trials within two to three days of the first onset of symptoms then there’s a fighting chance that one or two of those might actually be effective.”
Many experts were frustrated that there was not a better store of early-stage medicines to hand when the pandemic struck. If more investment had been made when Sars, another disease caused by a coronavirus, struck in 2003, we might have had a stable of pan-coronavirus antivirals by now, according to Nick Cammack, of the Wellcome Trust.
As it is, he said there were only two strong new antiviral candidates in the pipeline. One is called molnupiravir, from Merck, the American drugmaker. It comes in tablet form and is designed to interfere with an enzyme that the virus relies on to replicate. If clinical trials go well, it could be available in the third quarter of this year.
Roche and Atea are partnering to develop AT-527, another antiviral pill, but it will take longer.
“Then there’s a big gap, which is worrying. To have only a few potential therapeutics for a nasty disease during a global pandemic — it’s not a great place to be. We need a big push in R&D,” Dr Cammack said.
“It is a pandemic, it’s all over the world, it is not going away very quickly, It will take a long time to roll out the vaccines, however good they are, so we need to be attacking on all fronts. We just need to keep the foot on the pedal for both vaccines and therapeutics.”
Ivermectin use has surged across South America, according to Nature , the scientific journal. Last May about 350,000 doses were handed out to residents in northern Bolivia. In July academics in Peru said they would start producing it to feed demand and researchers across the continent have struggled to enrol people in formal clinical trials because so many are already taking it.
In India government hospitals in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh have prescribed the drug, hoping that it will prevent Covid-19. Dr Marik said that the results were impressive, with case rates falling, compared with neighbouring territories. However, India’s national regulator has refused to endorse the drug, citing a lack of solid evidence.
In the UK chatter on online support groups for people suffering with long Covid suggested that many sufferers have been trying to find their own supplies of ivermectin.
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Evidence is mounting.
Will the naysayers concede now or will they continue to dig? @glenshane has a list of them kept I’m sure.
I’m 100% onboard the Ivermectin wagon 
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A hollow victory if the intransigence of lads on tfk cost hundreds of lives around the world. I’ll not gloat at all so I wont
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Pfft… talk is cheap. Show us the receipt from the vet’s
While others moaned @glenshane went and sought solutions. It speaks volumes about the character of the cunt.
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On the brink of greatness here. I don’t think the guy even realises it.
If proven clinically you should have free reign to gloat. I’m sceptical of snake oil cures until proven out. Vitamin D and Zinc are the best way of prevention
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I would never gloat. Tfk is the real winner here, and humanity of course.
I’m but a humble servant and a willing conduit for higher knowledge, love and elevated consciousness
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How long is the list?
Jaysus. They knew in June
Big pharma was too far gone by then
The nonexistent one? It’s long. Some big names.
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Thanks for everything @glenshane, you’ve won every single covid related argument in addition to promoting a cheap wonder drug months ahead of the curve, unreal internetting. Hopefully the naysayers apologise to you.
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Where are the naysayers now??
Zero chance of that. Some cunts on here will we be quoting an article written by a voodoo priest from South Africa that questions its efficacy.
What are the Ivermectin advocates saying about governments and scientists knowing about the results of ivermectin as far back as last summer but buried it as big pharma had to make $$$$
We’ve seen the same mindset here, we at tfk are about as enlightened a bunch of lads as you could meet…and yet.
But now they know we know. Do you think they’re nervous at being held to account? Not at all. They could start saving lives within half an hour…
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