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by delecti 1001 days ago
There was also an in vitro study that showed ivermectin killed SARS-CoV-2 viral particles. Of course the conspiracy theorists left out dose information, which would be so high that it would just kill you outright.

So the truth behind the two halves of the ivermectin conspiracy were basically: if you have parasites, getting rid of them will help your COVID prognosis; and if you don't mind being dead first, we can prevent COVID from killing you.

3 comments

The study did not show that Ivermectin killed SARS-CoV-2 viral particles. Prior to the pandemic, Ivermectin was known to act as an broad anti-viral. This is due to Ivermectin being a protease inhibitor, i.e. it blocks an enzyme from acting. It's important to note that this is the mechanism through which approved anti-virals for SARS-CoV-2, such as Paxlovid, operate.
There are also some studies indicating that it can shrink certain tumors. My assumption was that it just stirred up the immune system in general, un thevsame way that a flu shot can decrease the severity of a cold.
I see a few in vitro studies are out there, It'd help if we knew which ones were being talked about specifically.
It would be nice if every comment was fully cited, but would probably be counter-productive since most people don’t have the time to find citations.

Until everyone’s knowledge is represented in some kind of knowledge graph, simply finding a citation “of that paper I read last year” can be a lot of work. So for now, it’s more effective to talk generally and cite a paper when it is relevant (when discussing methods etc).

I don’t know if you’ve done an in vitro study before, but I have. I can make anything kill anything in Petri dish. Heck I can make anything kill anything even in a mouse. If ANYONE can figure out how to reliably correlate preclinical studies (that’s the technical term for any study not done in humans) to human outcomes, they’d be a literal trillionaire in a decade. But that’s not possible yet.

Ivermectin did not work. It never did. People in the initial waves off were dying of Covid because their own immune system killed their lung. Ivermectin did jackshit about it. Multiple clinical trials proved that. So it’s time to hang that hat and find the next favorite conspiracy theory.

Obligatory zkcd: https://xkcd.com/1217/