Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has been pushing ivermectin as an effective treatment for the virus. Fox News' Laura Ingraham has also claimed "you have hydroxychloroquine, which of course got political and totally maligned, ivermectin, vitamin D, zinc -- all of it's good to take." And saying it is "used around the world to reduce Covid hospitalizations and deaths."
Ivermectin was approved for human use in the US only for intestinal parasites, head lice and rosacea. The study on which Johnson, Ingraham and others base their claims of use against Covid-19 has been retracted.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/25/politics ... index.htmlAn animal dewormer to treat COVID? Poison control centers see uptick in calls, stores sell out.
A warning from the Food and Drug Administration hasn't stopped people from taking a livestock deworming drug they believe will treat COVID-19.
Poison control centers across the nation have received an uptick in calls about the drug ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine often used to treat cattle and pigs.
Gaylord Lopez, executive director for the Georgia Poison Control Center, told USA TODAY they have already received 15 to 16 calls in August compared to the typical one call a month.
Lopez said one woman called the center after purchasing the sheep version but didn't have any side effects.
Others have called the center and reported significant symptoms ranging from extreme vomiting to blurred vision, he added.
The Georgia center received calls from the Alabama Poison Control Center last week asking if they were also getting calls about ivermectin poisoning.
"Across the board the message is standard. 'Stop using,'" Lopez said.
In pill form, the drug can be used to treat parasites in humans, and the National Institutes of Health is also funding a trial of drugs, including ivermectin, to potentially use to treat COVID-19.
However, the livestock version, which many are flocking to purchase, is highly concentrated and toxic to people, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.
Concerns over improper usage of the livestock version also led the FDA to warn the public to not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.
"You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously y'all. Stop it," the federal agency's Twitter account shared on Saturday.