It might be paving the way to use Voodoo & superstition to treat cancer, as opposed to science, this year the House Health Committee voted to send a bill allowing the use of the sheep deworming medication ivermectin to treat COVID to the floor.
Apparently, having thoroughly researched topic in chat groups, and receiving medical training from Facebook, House Bill 1267’s prime sponsor Rep. Phil Jensen “called the drug ivermectin a “very economical, very therapeutic” manner to treat COVID-19.”
Whereas most of the rest of us would call using sheep & horse dewormer to treat a viral infection just plain crazy. As noted in the Mitchell Daily Republic:
“It’s been mentioned that ivermectin has achieved worldwide fame and status,” said Dr. Dan Heinemann, representing the South Dakota Academy of Family Physicians. “Yes, that’s because it’s an incredible drug for the treatment of intestinal parasites, and that is not a common issue in this country, it is a huge issue in developing countries.”
The South Dakota State Medical Association, the lobby of hospitals, and other health groups stood in opposition to the bill, saying ivermectin has proven to be dangerous, even deadly in patients.
And..
Before the vote, one nurse on the committee — Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, R-Sioux Falls — called out the chair’s remark that appeared to suggest ivermectin was a pedestrian drug available at any “farm store.”
“The ivermectin that is available today is a horse dosage,” Rehfeldt said.
Supporters called it “a medical freedom act,” which I gather means the freedom to be an idiot & poison yourself with veterinary medicine.
Ivermectin is a drug used to treat infections caused by parasites, such as river blindness and intestinal problems caused by roundworms.
Scientists who developed ivermectin won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2015, when the foundation said the drug “revolutionized therapy for patients suffering from devastating parasitic diseases.”
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends refugees coming to the United States from most parts of the world take ivermectin as a “presumptive therapy.”
What’s your point?
his point is that Ivermectin is not just “horse dewormer.”
It’s approved for use in all mammals as far as I know, including humans.
The proper dosage for a human is 150-200 micrograms/kilogram of body weight.
The point is, it’s pretty stupid to demean a Nobel prize winning drug that has saved countless human lives by calling it “sheep dewormer.”
This is a CNN/democrat talking point.
Disappointing to say the least to phrase it this way.
Pat, thanks for a good chuckle this morning. Your comments are spot on!
What I don’t understand is this.
This is a drug that is already widely-used on animals. You can buy it off the shelf at Runnings. It’s sold for use on animals, but of course no one could stop a person from buying it and taking it himself.
Why, then, is this law necessary?
Homeschooling must not have covered the sciences very well for the Brown County legislator who was a sponsor of this bill nor growing up in a very sheltered coddled environment.
Anonymous coward(s).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34466270/
Nothing about how Joe Rogan got over covid so quickly.
Nothing about how Sweden just declared the pandemic over after doing basically nothing about it.
It’s official, we have very dumb leaders.
Also, most important .. nothing about how wireless weapons for quiet war cause covid/flu like symptoms, or how flu all but went away in 2020, or how hospitals make money for pushing Remdesivir and Vents (death sentence in many cases).
I feel for any political candidate that advocated for the shots or for something other than normal measures (protect the vulnerable).
I’m also sad that our high school graduates don’t seem to graduate with the skills to verify the contents of the vaccine vials.
A detailed study, lot by lot, needed to be conducted .. boy that would be useful, wouldn’t it?
Hmmm…
Sweden has a 73% vaccination rate, so if you call that basically doing nothing you are entirely correct.
Sweden has steadfastly avoided lockdowns, school closures, and mandates
Yet people there still chose overwhelmingly to get vaccinated; is that some coincidence they didn’t have to lockdown, close schools, or have over-burdensome mandates?
You’re an idiot and I you’re just dumb enough to take Invermectin.
Rogan was lucky, if he really had COVID. So was dear leader 45, though he benefited from the best medical care in the world.
It’s “lucky” to survive an illness with a fatality rate of around .003%? Seems like the oppose of luck.
I wish I had known about Ivermectin when I was trying to rescue a litter of kittens with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. One developed ascending paralysis and died in my hands; the rest survived after several weeks of daily treatment with astragalus and lactobacillus acidophilus, which increases interferon levels.
FIP is caused by a coronavirus. I did not know that Ivermectin is effective against a bovine coronavirus. I would have tried that.
It’s not rocket science to weigh an animal and calculate a dosage.
“vaccine freedom” is really a code here for wanting a law that lets a patient demand his doctor or hospital prescribe and treat him with a non-approved therapy. If the hospital refuses, they can sue. They don’t care that they can buy it at Runnings, they want to force hospitals to prescribe it.
What these fake conservatives are really doing, and they’re too dumb to understand it, is enabling trial lawyers. You know: the Democrats biggest contributors? The reason this country has become the nanny state of the world?
Welcome to the Republican Party!
Not sure why the medical establishment — and this site’s host and many commenters, as well — are so hostile. Millions of doses of this medicine are given worldwide for a variety of diseases, without bad consequences. If patients want it as a covid treatment, physicians can prescribe it, but at considerable risk to their practices given the official antipathy. Best to think of this treatment as chicken soup — can’t hurt, may help.
Just a note on how I reached this perspective… My father was a small-town doc in Nebraska whose diagnostic skills were so well known that specialists from around the country called him when they were stumped. On those occasions when no treatment helped his own patients, he prescribed placebos — sugar pills — fibbing that it was some new pharmaceutical, but truthfully telling the patient he didn’t know whether they’d work. Amazingly, patients who hadn’t responded to any other medication often healed up after taking the sugar pills.
So I’m pretty sure my dad would prescribe the medicine in question if the patient wanted it, given that it can’t hurt and may help.
Well Clifford, I’m glad you didn’t go to medical school to form these opinions. We don’t over-prescribe medicine, especially treatments for a virus, because they mutate and become treatment resistant. Anyone would know this if they’ve taken middle school biology class in South Dakota after 1990.
Maybe too many sugar pills and not enough doses of common sense?
Cliff, you are one of the few voices of reason around here nowadays.
Another embarrassment for Brown County. Time to clean house!
During committee remarks, Rep. Kaleb Weis, R-Aberdeen, doubled-down on skepticism about the medical community’s attempts to dissuade people from self-medicating with ivermectin.
“It makes me really question the quality and un-biased-ness of our clinical trials,” said Weis, “which, unfortunately, then makes me question our medical profession in general”
Nearly every medication prescribed for bovine can be used by humans except Micotil which will kill every other animal, humans included in seconds. It’s a fantastic bovine pneumonia drug which has saved millions of calves and feedlot cattle worldwide. It has sadly killed a number of cowboys too. Ivermectin on the other hand has been injected and poured on millions of bovines and splashed their handlers in the process with zero side effects. Bovine Coronavirus is a disease cattle carry and are mostly immune to. Calves are given an immunization to enhance their immunity knowing they and their mothers throw infectious fecal matter around their entire lives. If you grew up working cattle you have also been somewhat immunized against coronaviruses.
Long live the American ranchers….
Marijuana isn’t an effective treatment for anything but the people voted for it anyway.
If people want to treat whatever ails them with combinations of marijuana and ivermectin, who cares?