5 ms·

This is a bizarre stat: > By mid-August U.S. pharmacies were filling 88,000 weekly prescriptions for the medication, a 24-fold increase from pre-COVID levels,

This is a bizarre stat: > By mid-August U.S. pharmacies were filling 88,000 weekly prescriptions for the medication, a 24-fold increase from pre-COVID levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, U.S. poison control centers have seen a five-fold increase in emergency calls related to the drug, with some incidents requiring hospitalization. So despite prescriptions going up x24, and some unknown number of people taking veterinary versions of the drug, emergency calls have only gone up x5? Wouldn't we expect it to be around x24 or greater? Also, the lack of stats on hospitalization is interesting, in that there aren't any. From another article on the same subject, Mississippi at least has apparently had zero (https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/15400.pdf https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/15400.pdf). This whole thing just seems like a manufactured story that gets clicks because it plays into prejudices about rural Americans.

redisman 5y ago
I mean it is FDA approved for humans for various ailments so it’s not that surprising that everyone isn’t dying from taking it
meheleventyone 5y ago
> So despite prescriptions going up x24, and some unknown number of people taking veterinary versions of the drug, emergency calls have only gone up x5? Wouldn't we expect it to be around x24 or greater? Presumably most of the hospitalizations are from the non-prescription use and less people are likely to take medicine "off-book" and some of those are at least clever enough to work out a safe dosage.
TOMDM 5y ago
> So despite prescriptions going up x24, and some unknown number of people taking veterinary versions of the drug, emergency calls have only gone up x5? Wouldn't we expect it to be around x24 or greater? Why would we expect excess emergency calls due to doctor prescribed levels of ivermectin? Ivermectin is used to treat humans for other things, and unless it's a particularly dangerous treatment I doubt we'd see many hospitalisations due to it. There's little evidence it helps treat COVID, but I doubt doctors are prescribing dangerous levels of ivermectin like those found in animal treatments. 5x emergency calls for people taking animal treatments sounds reasonable.
- pseudo0 5y ago
  Presumably the rate of overdoses or bad reactions would stay the same for doctor prescribed ivermectin, so 24x more prescriptions would result in 24x more overdoses or bad reactions. Then throw in the people taking veterinary versions of the drug that have to be properly converted to a human dosage, and I'd expect the rate to go up, not down, as they would be more likely to experience ill effects.
haswell 5y ago
I suspect this has something to do with the human drug vs. the veterinary products. Ivermectin is a widely prescribed and generally safe drug when used for its intended purpose. Some would argue that taking it in human-sized doses for COVID is probably not dangerous (this does not imply it's effective). The problem is that people who can't get human prescriptions are turning to veterinary products which tend to be massively larger doses, and this is where things probably go off the rails.

redisman 5y ago

I mean it is FDA approved for humans for various ailments so it’s not that surprising that everyone isn’t dying from taking it

meheleventyone 5y ago

> So despite prescriptions going up x24, and some unknown number of people taking veterinary versions of the drug, emergency calls have only gone up x5? Wouldn't we expect it to be around x24 or greater? Presumably most of the hospitalizations are from the non-prescription use and less people are likely to take medicine "off-book" and some of those are at least clever enough to work out a safe dosage.

TOMDM 5y ago

> So despite prescriptions going up x24, and some unknown number of people taking veterinary versions of the drug, emergency calls have only gone up x5? Wouldn't we expect it to be around x24 or greater? Why would we expect excess emergency calls due to doctor prescribed levels of ivermectin? Ivermectin is used to treat humans for other things, and unless it's a particularly dangerous treatment I doubt we'd see many hospitalisations due to it. There's little evidence it helps treat COVID, but I doubt doctors are prescribing dangerous levels of ivermectin like those found in animal treatments. 5x emergency calls for people taking animal treatments sounds reasonable.

pseudo0 5y ago
Presumably the rate of overdoses or bad reactions would stay the same for doctor prescribed ivermectin, so 24x more prescriptions would result in 24x more overdoses or bad reactions. Then throw in the people taking veterinary versions of the drug that have to be properly converted to a human dosage, and I'd expect the rate to go up, not down, as they would be more likely to experience ill effects.

haswell 5y ago

I suspect this has something to do with the human drug vs. the veterinary products. Ivermectin is a widely prescribed and generally safe drug when used for its intended purpose. Some would argue that taking it in human-sized doses for COVID is probably not dangerous (this does not imply it's effective). The problem is that people who can't get human prescriptions are turning to veterinary products which tend to be massively larger doses, and this is where things probably go off the rails.