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Is Ivermectin For Covid-19 Based On Fraudulent Research? Part 5
The only remaining randomized trial that found a benefit for ivermectin on Covid-19 mortality has serious issues
This is part 5 in what appears to be a deep well of research issues underpinning the entire evidence-base for ivermectin and Covid-19. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here.
This part talks about a study that has also been investigated by Dr. Kyle Sheldrick, whose post on the trial can be found here.
Before Covid-19, ivermectin was known as a fantastic drug that cured some really horrifying parasitic diseases, and was so safe that it could be given to millions of people each year as a preventative measure. It is such an amazing medication for parasites that it won its discoverers the 2015 Nobel prize for medicine, and is used as a treatment all across the globe.
It is also, famously, used to de-worm livestock, which has led to the promulgation of endless memes when desperate people started taking large animal versions of ivermectin instead of human formulations during the pandemic.
Because of some amazingly positive trials, ivermectin has also been proposed as a treatment of and cure for Covid-19. According to passionate proponents, ivermectin is an almost-perfect treatment for coronavirus that can almost entirely eliminate your risk of dying from the disease or even catching it in the first place.
This perspective has come under fire recently as a number of very high-profile studies were revealed to be potentially or definitely faked. However, there remained hope, because there was one trial in the bunch that had enormously positive results, and this skewed the scientific appraisal to favour ivermectin immensely.
Unfortunately, it turns out that this study was almost certainly not conducted as described in the published paper. Removing this trial from the literature entirely overturns any benefit for ivermectin and makes it quite likely that the drug is useless for Covid-19 after all.
