Ivermectin

[Zigzag Idiot]

12 hours ago, UDT said:

Hope that cleared some of your questions up !

It did. @UDT
Thank you for the detailed response!

[UDT]

When confronted by a pandemic of a painful, often injurious (long haul syndrome), and potentially deadly disease for which there is no existing early treatment, the responsible policy for a Public Health Agency is to issue an emergency use authorization for any promising drug with a good safety record, along with appropriate tentative cautions, and initially only to providers who participate in an effect-monitoring program.

If positive results come in, the cautions can be relaxed and participation in the program can be expanded, along with hints about the best protocols. Any degree of effectiveness is a reason for expansion of the program; statistical proof of efficacy beyond a reasonable doubt is not needed at an early stage, but will come in time, given even slight effectiveness.

Even inconclusive initial results justify continuing the program, as effectiveness may depend on the discovery, in practice, of the proper protocol. Only if no effective protocol eventually emerges should the program be terminated.

It is an irresponsible policy that demands certainly before an EUA, because its delay condemns multitudes to certain discomfort, disability, and death in the interim. And also because even the supposedly best-run RCTs are fallible, due to their narrowness.

The only downside of an authorize-and-observe policy is the potential embarrassment of the drug not working. But that loss of face comes with the territory of “battlefield medicine,” which encompasses Covid-medicine, where doing nothing is not an option.

So the way this commentator frames the issue is all wrong. Given that none of the studies so far have found significant adverse effects, there is no justification for delaying an EUA for ivermectin. The downside of delay is disability and death. That ought to weigh more than the loss of a public health authority’s infallible social status. Who cares about that but the hubristic—who deserve above all to lose it.

 

Quote from RogerKnights