ARIZONA, USA — As more cases of the sort arise in the state and nation, the Food and Drug Administration released a statement debunking the usefulness of livestock deworming drugs as a cure for COVID-19.
The recommendation came as more than 70% of Mississippi’s poison control calls have been related to these drugs.
The same products have been flying off Phoenix feed store shelves, too.
“Ivermectin is one of the stronger wormers we have,” Joe Robinson, manager of The Western Ranchman said. “We used to go through a box of 12 a month. Now we go through a box of a hundred in a month. Easily.”
According to Robinson, they started to see a run on the product during the spring. A run that has not slowed down.
Where the product used to only be sold to livestock owners, now it could be anyone.
“Now you are seeing people who are obviously not horse owners. Coming in here and buying, not just one tube, but 10 tubes,” Robinson said.
He said the customers sometimes ask how to take the drug or ask why he and his employees are not taking it themselves.
“Some are pretty pushy about it. Asking us why we aren’t taking it,” Robinson said. “I wouldn’t take it myself because I know what it is.”
What it is, is a drug to help deworm cows and/or horses. If ingested, it could be dangerous.
“It does have legitimate uses in humans. But those legitimate uses do not includeCOVID at all,” Dr. Andrew Carroll said.
According to Carroll the drug can be prescribed to treat things like lice in humans.
Carroll said the drug was looked into in poorer countries to see if it could slow the spread of COVID. Those countries lacked the access to vaccines and modern medicine that America does and were “desperate.”
Since then Carroll said multiple studies have been done on if it could be effective against COVID.
“We’ve done legitimate studies on Ivermectin and if it's actually beneficial for COVID. Absolutely zero benefit. No benefit for COVID. And high rates of harm,” Dr. Carroll said. “So what we are seeing is people arriving in the emergency rooms with a lot of GI symptoms.”
The concern for Dr. Carroll is this could take up valuable resources away from actual COVID patients.
“Even though Ivermectin has legitimate medical uses, it does not have any true medical use for COVID. We know what prevents COVID. It’s a vaccine. If you haven’t gotten it, it's time to go get it,” Carroll said.
COVID-19 News and Updates
Subscribe to the 12 News YouTube channel to receive notifications on the latest videos about the latest information on the coronavirus.