As more and more people are resorting to taking horse de-wormer drug Ivermectin instead of vaccinating against COVID-19, the FDA is desperately reminding the population that it is not only ineffective, it is highly dangerous as well and could even result in death!
This warning comes after a shocking increase of 163% in Ivermectin poisoning in the last 12 months in the US, as per data from American Association of Poison Control Centers.
Only last month alone, there were no less than 459 emergency calls for ivermectin poisoning as opposed to only 58 such cases registered in the same month of 2020.
But in spite of many very clear warnings from health officials, American citizens still attempt, in concerning numbers, to obtain the drug that is normally used to treat parasite infection or prevent it in large farm animals such as horses and cattle.
This is because of their unsubstantiated beliefs that ivermectin can protect or heal them from a COVID-19 infection.
In the meantime, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has told the population that this animal drug is not proven to fight the virus in any way.
Late last month, they even tweeted:
You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it. https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021
Furthermore, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials also stressed in an advisory that:
“Ivermectin is not approved or authorized by FDA for prevention or treatment of the COVID-19 virus. Furthermore, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel has determined that there is currently insufficient data to recommend it for treatment of the COVID-19 virus.”
As for what kind of symptoms you may experience if you decide to take the horse de-wormer, they are: rashes, nausea and vomiting, sharp abdominal pain and even neurological disorders, as well as severe hepatitis that would then require immediate hospitalization.
The CDC also stated that starting with July of this year, ivermectin prescriptions have started rising up to 24 times when compared to pre-pandemic data.
Furthermore, the medicine has even been selling out in stores from a number of different American states, including Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas, and Arkansas.
Mississippi State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers shared via a memo that “Patients should be advised not to take any medications intended to treat animals and should also be instructed to only take ivermectin as prescribed by their doctors. Animal drugs are highly concentrated for large animal use and they can be highly toxic in humans.”
As a result, earlier this week, the American Medical Association and a couple of pharmacist groups encouraged medical specialists and pharmacists to warn all their patients about the extreme risks of taking ivermectin.
Unfortunately, the cases of ivermectin poisoning continue to increase thanks to some Republican politicians and other conservative public personalities such as talk show hosts, who have talked positively about taking the drug.
Social media is also greatly contributing to spreading that misinformation and encouraging millions to trust this dangerous drug instead of getting vaccinated.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, has stated that any data supporting the positive effects of ivermectin use is anecdotal and that there needs to be much more research into it before doctors should ever recommend it to COVID patients.
“We need to get a lot more data before we can say that this is a definitive treatment. We would like to see more data before I recommend it to my patients.”
Instead, the FDA has long approved the human version of this drug to solely treat cases of worms as well as other parasitic infections such as head lice.
