Months after Health Canada claimed it’s “disinformation” to use ivermectin to treat COVID-19, the American health agency is considering the drug as a “possible treatment.”
Under “COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines,” the National Health Institute’s (NIH) website lists ivermectin as “an antiparasitic drug that is being evaluated to treat COVID-19.”
The NIH’s current evaluation suggests ivermectin can be used to treat the novel coronavirus.
“Reports from in vitro studies suggest that ivermectin acts by inhibiting host importin alpha/beta-1 nuclear transport proteins, which are part of a key intracellular transport process,” the listing reads.
“Viruses hijack the process and enhance infection by suppressing the host’s antiviral response. In addition, ivermectin docking may interfere with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein attachment to the human cell membrane. Some studies of ivermectin have also reported potential anti-inflammatory properties, which have been postulated to be beneficial in people with COVID-19.”
The assessment explicitly recommends “against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, except in clinical trials.”
The most recent update to the NIH website is April 29, 2022. In the time since, a new peer-reviewed study involving almost 90,000 patients indicated that ivermectin significantly reduced the chances of hospitalization and death in COVID-infected individuals.
Ivermectin has been a controversial treatment for over two years, with health authorities on the government payroll censoring and shaming medical experts who argued it’s effective in treating COVID.
Canada’s state broadcaster CBC News ran a piece about COVID “disinformation” in which Health Canada stated there’s no evidence of the drug’s utility.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriquez — who is pushing for censorship of so-called “disinformation” through Bill C-11 — has alluded to censoring outlets that suggest ivermectin can treat COVID.
“We are having discussions internally because there’s no way that Canada Heritage will support any type of disinformation,” he said in March.
In May, the Missouri Legislature passed a bill preventing state licensing boards from punishing doctors who “lawfully” prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID.
“Unfortunately, because of the politicization of those two drugs, [doctors are] being targeted,” Sen. Rick Brattin said. “I wanted to protect them from that.”
