The deadly distraction of false Covid cures like ivermectin

“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” This actual tweet from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sounds better suited for an April Fool’s Day joke than for an actual federal health advisory posted just days before the FDA fully approved Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for those 16 and older.

It’s easy to joke about ignorant or desperate people taking horse dewormers, but misinformation like this really is deadly. Hydroxychloroquine was used off-label by many around the world, with devastating results, and the same thing is now happening again.

The internet was supposed to revolutionize how we share information. However, as we head into the second autumn of the pandemic with cases once again surging across the United States — despite a monumental vaccination effort — misinformation is still rampant. Risky coronavirus cures and unproven treatments, from hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to oleandrin and now ivermectin, prove an epidemic of science denial has flourished online.

Ivermectin is a medication widely used to treat parasitic infections in humans and animals. Some of the more common medical uses are against worms, mites and insects, like scabies and roundworms, and tropical diseases like river blindness. If you have a dog, you may know it as a heartworm medicine, and if you have livestock, like horses, cows and pigs, then you may know it as a deworming agent.

Ivermectin has shown antiviral effects at very high doses. However, it has never been proven to effectively treat or prevent viral infections in humans. Like much in vitro data, meaning research done on cell cultures in petri dishes, any positive findings have not been replicated in vivo in actual human subjects. And a quick look at this data suggests a reason why: The doses and concentrations necessary for antiviral activity are much higher than are safe for humans, and would be toxic to human life as well as viruses. If this sounds familiar it’s because the same misapplication of in vitro science has been used to promote hydroxychloroquine and disinfectants like bleach.