Merck and Pfizer are each developing a new oral antiviral drug that might prevent or treat COVID-19. The pills are very different from the antiparasitic medication ivermectin, contrary to claims online that they are “suspiciously similar” or that the companies are “repackaging” ivermectin in a ploy to increase profits.

Joe Rogan confronted CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta over the network’s portrayal of him taking ivermectin to treat COVID-19.

Rogan slammed CNN’s “lies” about ivermectin as a “horse dewormer” on his podcast Wednesday — Rogan previously took ivermectin pills prescribed by a doctor to help treat COVID-19 in late August. A CNN chyron at the time said, “Joe Rogan says he has Covid, taking livestock drug despite warnings.”

Ivermectin has been called a Covid "miracle" drug, championed by vaccine opponents, and recommended by health authorities in some countries. But the BBC can reveal there are serious errors in a number of key studies that the drug's promoters rely on.

For some years ivermectin has been a vital anti-parasitic medicine used to treat humans and animals.

But during the pandemic there has been a clamour from some proponents for using the drug for something else - to fight Covid and prevent deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of ivermectin as a treatment for arriving refugees to treat parasitic infections. But a social media post by Dr. Simone Gold, a proponent of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, references the CDC guidance without accurately explaining the reason why refugees are given the drug. The CDC has warned against using ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19.

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the use of ivermectin, an antiparasitic medication, to treat or prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Ivermectin is approved for human use only to treat some conditions caused by parasites, such as intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, head lice, and skin conditions. 

There is already so much bad news about Covid-19 that no one needs to look very hard to find it. On Memorial Day, the United States was hovering around 25,000 new cases a day; on Labor Day, the figure is more than six times higher. The daily death total is about where it was last Thanksgiving. Deaths in Louisiana and Florida alone are outpacing those in the United Kingdom. More than 100,000 are hospitalized across the country.

Last week, KFOR, a local news outlet in Oklahoma, published a story that contained some terrifying information: so many people in the state were hospitalized due to overdoses of ivermectin—a drug originally designed for horses, which some anti-vaccine sources have promoted (incorrectly) as a defense against COVID-19—that there was no room in intensive-care units for other patients, including those with gunshot wounds. The story contained quotes from an interview with Dr.

At some point the journalistic injunction, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out” became “If it fits the Narrative, don’t bother to check it out.”

To prevent or treat COVID-19, would you consider using a drug labeled "for oral use in horses only"? 

How about one whose creation, for human beings, won a Nobel Prize?

Both drugs are ivermectin. 

So perhaps it’s no wonder that debate continues to swirl about whether ivermectin, for the coronavirus, is only for crackpots or has its place in the fight against the pandemic.