Prevention RFC - Does relative evidence strength justify inclusion of ivermectin (I-MASK) in the prevention section over or in addition to hand washing and/or social distancing? edit

Does relative evidence strength justify inclusion of ivermectin (I-MASK) in the prevention section of COVID-19 pandemic over or in addition to hand washing and/or social distancing?

Initial comment:

Leaving it out violates WP:UNDUE (it goes both ways. Many qualified experts are (cautiously but WP:Verifiably) calling it a game changer in numerous publications.

So as of mid-November, 2020, we have summaries, review articles (https://osf.io/wx3zn), by coalitions of independent, leading critical care doctors, scientists and independent brief reviews of reviews

Similar reviews with only minor variations.

When looking at recent (last 3 months) publications, I'm seeing WP:Verifiable consensus. While there's plenty of OLD credible critics of ivermectin, what's recent and worth mentioning on the critical side?

  • There's the Surgisphere#COVID-19_misconduct scandal, but it's blown over. There's scientific consensus that the papers all failed science's and thus our WP:Verifiability criteria. And mentioning the scandal itself here would be WP:UNDUE.
  • For balance, we have to dig further back. The best I can find is from an FDA Q&A on 5/1:

FDA has not yet published anything taking the peer reviewed, published study data into account that has been available for some time now, for ivermectin - both RCTs and cohort analysis. The newest citation in FDA's last publication on ivermectin was to an editorial, i.e. not a peer-reviewed paper; no disclosures section..

WIP. --~~~~


It does appear we have independent sources addressing the possibility, as the FLCCC group at first glance appears to be an association formed around the search for effective treatments and for months, they were NOT support of this treatment.[1]

But they were already strongly advocating for methylprednisolone and heparin (and to a lesser degree Vitamins B1, C, D, and Zinc), and their COI disclosure section is pristine, especially when compared with a lot of the other sources here implicitly deemed WP:Verifiable nonetheless.


EUREKA! Now we have a review article in the peer-reviewed literature! ... On the 6-month old version.--50.201.195.170 (talk) 19:57, 19 December 2020 (UTC)Reply

--~~~~

Initial additional comment:

list of review authors, with titles and affiliations of a review article

( Review of the Emerging Evidence Supporting the Use of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19 by Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance )

  1. Pierre Kory, Associate Professor of Medicine, St. Luke’s Aurora Medical Center
  2. G. Umberto Meduri, Professor of Medicine, Univ. of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis
  3. Jose Iglesias, DO, Associate Professor of Medicine, Hackensack School of Medicine, Seton Hall
  4. Joseph Varon, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center
  5. Keith Berkowitz, MD, Medical Director, Center for Balanced Health, New York
  6. Howard Kornfeld, MD, Diplomate in Emergency Medicine, Director, Recovery Without Walls
  7. Eivind Vinjevoll, MD, Critical Care and Emergency Department Chief, Volda, Norway
  8. Scott Mitchell, MRCS, Associate Specialist, Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey
  9. Fred Wagshul, MD, Medical Director, Lung Center of America, Dayton, Ohio
  10. Paul E. Marik, MD, Professor of Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School
22 solid sources and growing
  1. 1. Caly L, Druce JD, Catton MG, Jans DA, Wagstaff KM. The FDA-approved drug Ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Antiviral Res 2020.
  2. 2. Lehrer S, Rheinstein PH. Ivermectin docks to the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain attached to ACE2. In Vivo 2020; 34:3023-6.
  3. 3. Maurya DK. A combination of Ivermectin and Doxycycline possibly blocks the viral entry and modulate the innate immune response in COVID-19 patients. ChemRxiv 2020.
  4. 4. Yang SN, Atkinson SC, Wang C, Lee A. The broad spectrum antiviral ivermectin targets the host nuclear transport importin alpha/beta1 heterodimer. Antiviral Res 2020; 177:104760.
  5. 5. Dayer MR. Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) deactivation via spike glycoprotein shielding by old drugs, bioinformatic study. Preprints 2020.
  6. 6. Swargiary A. Ivermectin as a promising RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibitor and a therapeutic drug against SARS-CoV2: Evidence from silico studies. Research Square 2020.
  7. 7. Zhang X, Song Y, Ci X, An N, Ju Y. Ivermectin inhibits LPS-induced production of inflammatory cytokines and improves LPS-induced survival in mice. Inflamm Res 2008; 57:524-9.
  8. 8. Ci X, Li H, Yu Q et al. Avermectin exerts anti-inflammatory effect by downregulating the nuclear transcription factor kappa-B and mitogen activated protein kinase pathway. Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology 2009; 23:449-55.
  9. 9. Rajter JC, Sherman MS, Fatteh N, Vogel F, Sacks J, Rajter JJ. ICON (Ivermectin in COvid Ninteen) study: Use of ivermectin is associated with lower mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Chest 2020.
  10. 10. Gorial FI, Mashhadani S, Sayaly HM, Dakhil BD, AlMashhadani MM. Effectiveness of Ivermectin as add-on therapy in COVID-19 management (Pilot Trial). medRxiv 2020.
  11. 11. Khan MS, Khan MS, Debnath Cr, Nath PN, Mahtab MA. Ivermectin treatment may improve the prognosis of patients with COVID-19. Archivos de Bronconeumologia 2020.
  12. 12. Hashim HA, Maulood MF, rasheed AM, Fatak DF, Kabah KK. Controlled randomized clinical triaal on using Ivermectin with Doxycycline for treating COVID-19 patients in Bagdad, Iraq. medRxiv 2020.
  13. 13. Murshed MR, Bhiuyan E, Saber S, Alam RF, Robin RF. A case series of 100 COVID-19 positive patients treated with combination of Ivermectin and Doxycycline. Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2020; 38:10-5.
  14. 14. Chamie J. Real-World evidence: The case of Peru, casuality between Ivermectin and COVID-19 infection fatality rate. ResearchGate 2020.
  15. 15. Jans DA, Wagstaff KM. Ivermectin as a broad-spectrum host directed anti-viral: The real deal. Cells 2020;9:2100.
  16. 16. DiNicolantonio JJ, Barroso-Arranda J, McCarty M. Ivermectin may be a clinically useful anti-inflammatory agent for late-stage COVID-19. Open Heart 2020; 7:e001350.
  17. 17. Sharun K, Dhama K, Patel SK, Pathak M, Tiwari R. Ivermectin, a new candidate therapeutic against SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob 2020; 19:23.
  18. 18. Peralta EG, Fimia-Duarte R, Cardenas JW, Dominguez DV, Segura RB. Ivermectin, a drug to be considered for the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Brief literature review. EC Veterinary Science 2020; 5:25-9.
  19. 19. Al-Jassim KB, Jawad AA, Al-Masoudi EA, Majeed SK. Histopathological and biochemical effects of ivermectin on kidney functions, lung and the ameliorative effects of vitamin C in rabbits. Bas J Vet Res2016; 14:110-24.
  20. 20. Mudatsir M, Yufika A, Nainu F, Frediansyah A, Megawati D. Antiviral activity of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2: an old-fashioned dog with a new trick- Literature review. Sci Pharm 2020; 88:36.
  21. 21. Carvallo H, Hirsch R, Farinella ME. Safety and efficacy of the combined use of Ivermectin, dexamethasone, enoxaparin and aspirin against COVID-19. medRxiv 2020.
  22. 22. Kircik LH, Del Rosso JQ, Layton AM, schauber J. Over 25 years of clinical experience with Ivermectin: An overview of safety for an increasing number of indications. J Drugs Dermatol 2016; 15:325-32.

(Note: Does not include or rely on discredited Surgisphere#COVID-19_misconduct reliant-study.)


I've yet to search for reputable coverage in news media. But already, in terms of weight of evidence, we have more evidence for ivermectin than hand washing, and about as much we do for face masks and social distancing. But these feature prominently, while ivermectin is not mentioned.

Draft discussion edit

Again: Comments/suggestions welcome here as I polish; please no edits above, to avoid edit conflicts.--~~~~

RFC discussion edit

Not open yet.

  1. ^ Sentence 1: "In March 2020, an expert panel called the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) was created and led by Professor Paul E. Marik with the goal of continuously reviewing the rapidly emerging basic science, translational, and clinical data in order to gain insight into and to develop a treatment protocol for, COVID-19" [https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FLCCC-Ivermectin-in-the-prophylaxis-and-treatment-of-COVID-19.pdf Review of the Emerging Evidence Supporting the Use of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19 ; Version 4; Nov. 19, 2020] by Pierre Kory, Associate Professor of Medicine, St. Luke’s Aurora Medical Center G. Umberto Meduri, Professor of Medicine, Univ. of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis Jose Iglesias, DO, Associate Professor of Medicine, Hackensack School of Medicine, Seton Hall Joseph Varon, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center Keith Berkowitz, MD, Medical Director, Center for Balanced Health, New York Howard Kornfeld, MD, Diplomate in Emergency Medicine, Director, Recovery Without Walls Eivind Vinjevoll, MD, Critical Care and Emergency Department Chief, Volda, Norway Scott Mitchell, MRCS, Associate Specialist, Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey Fred Wagshul, MD, Medical Director, Lung Center of America, Dayton, Ohio Paul E. Marik, MD, Professor of Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School]